Grenade missing in wake of explosion which killed 3 L.A. deputies, officials say

One of two grenades that was recovered from a Santa Monica garage prior to an explosion that killed three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies last week is missing, officials confirmed Friday. 

The news of the missing grenade came as the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department also confirmed that the other grenade detonated and killed the three deputies at the Biscailuz Training Facility in East L.A. 

An investigation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that the deputies recovered two grenades from an underground garage at an apartment complex in Santa Monica on July 17, according to L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna. 

Deputies from the department’s Arson Explosives Detail held the explosive overnight at the Biscailuz Training Facility after believing the grenades were inert. The following morning, one of the grenades detonated and killed the three deputies. 

In the week following the deadly explosion, however, the ATF and LASD have not recovered the second grenade. The sheriff’s department has restricted access to the road leading to the parking lot where the blast occurred. Authorities have searched a radius of at least 400 feet around the explosion site for the missing grenade, Luna said.

Luna said investigators “believe with confidence” that the missing grenade arrived at the training facility and was not lost during the 21.2-mile drive between Santa Monica and the Biscailuz Training Facility.

The ATF will lead the search for the missing explosive, according to Luna. 

“If anyone in our community encounters an explosive device, please do not touch it,” Luna said. “Immediately contact 911 or your local law enforcement agency.”

The incident represented the largest loss of life for the department since 1857, Luna said. The department will change its policies to avoid a similar incident in the future, according to Luna. 

“All future explosive devices, inert or not, will be treated as if they are all live and will be disposed of accordingly,” Luna said. “We’re going to look at everything we could. Why? Because we need to know what happened. We owe it to the families. For god’s sake, I never want this to happen again.”

Luna said the Arson Explosives Detail, the agency’s bomb squad, will not respond to calls for service. The Special Enforcement Bureau, the department’s SWAT team, is fully operational. Luna said the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT and bomb squads have responded to calls for service, while the sheriff’s teams were not operational. 

“I cannot tell you how grateful I am to Chief Jim McDonnell and the Los Angeles Police Department, who came in from the very beginning to assist us,” Luna said. “They’ve been assisting us with our bomb callouts and our SWAT callouts.”

Immediately after the explosion, the ATF deployed its National Response Team to investigate the explosion with LASD. The NRT was deployed to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. The team most recently deployed ot the deadly fireworks explosion in Northern California.

The ATF will release the findings from its complete investigation in 45 days, according to Luna. 

LASD and the federal agents have served search warrants at a handful of properties in Marina del Rey and the Santa Monica garage, where the deputies recovered the grenade. 

Luna asked anyone with information about the case to contact the department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 or the ATF at 1(888) 283-8477.

LASD identified the deputies killed in the explosion as detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn, who were all members of the Arson Explosives Detail.

“There are no words to express the pain and sorrow we feel,” Luna said last week. “These heroes represented the best of our Department, exemplifying courage, integrity, and selfless service. This is not only a heartbreaking loss for their families, but for all of us.”