LOS ANGELES — A grenade that was taken to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department facility detonated last week and killed three detectives, but a second grenade remains unaccounted for, the sheriff said Friday.
The sheriff’s officials on the Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail believed the two military-style grenades they seized from a Santa Monica storage unit on July 17 were inert, but one of them detonated the next day and killed the three men, officials said.
A federal investigation has determined that the second grenade remains unaccounted for, Sheriff Robert Luna said. Investigators have used X-rays and searched vehicles and lockers at the East Los Angeles facility, as well as the blast site and facility perimeter, since the explosion, he said.
“We have looked at everything out there that we possibly could,” Luna said. He said the investigation into how the explosion happened was ongoing.
“Right now there’s a second grenade, that we’re not 100% sure where it’s at,” Luna said.
The explosion occurred around 7:30 a.m. July 18 at the sheriff’s department Biscailuz Training Facility.
Killed were detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn, who were all on the Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail.
The day before the explosion, the detail was called to help Santa Monica police after two grenades were found in a tenant storage unit in a building’s underground parking garage, Luna said.
The explosives detectives “X-rayed the devices and believed that they were both inert,” Luna said. The devices were taken to the facility to be destroyed and rendered safe, he said.
Officials do not believe the second grenade was lost en route from Santa Monica to the training center, Luna said.
“We believe with confidence that did not occur,” he said. Santa Monica is around 20 miles away from East Los Angeles.
But if anyone sees what appears to be a grenade, explosive device, or even an unknown object, they are warned not to touch it, and to call 911.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will lead the investigation into the whereabouts of the second device, Luna said. The ATF has also sent its National Response Team to Los Angeles.
“I can tell you with clarity from our post-blast examination that we know one device exploded,” ATF Los Angeles Division Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper said. “And we have not recovered any evidence from a second device on that scene.”
Cooper said investigators, including using explosives-detecting dogs, drones, and cherry pickers to look in trees, have “meticulously examined the radius of over 400 feet from the blast seat, multiple times.”
“Over the abundance of caution, we searched a blast area far greater than the results of that explosive device,” Cooper said.
There has been changes in how the sheriff’s department handles explosives, including treating all devices, even ones believed to be inert, as live, Luna said.
Luna said he has called for a thorough after-action review department policies. “We’re going to turn this upside down. We’re going to look at everything.” Luna said.
“We owe it to the families,” he said. “And for God’s sake, I never want this to happen again.”
