Tragic Explosion at Monterey Park Training Facility Claims Lives of Three Deputies
As flags fly at half-staff and investigators search for answers, the sheriff’s department mourns the loss of three of its most experienced officers, men who faced danger daily, only to fall in a routine training task turned fatal.
A devastating explosion at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Biscailuz Center Training Academy in East Los Angeles killed three veteran deputies from the Arson Explosives Detail: Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn. The deputies, with a combined 74 years of service (19, 22, and 33 years, respectively), were handling unexploded ordnance, believed to be a grenade, in the facility’s parking lot around 7:30 a.m. when the device detonated.
The blast, described as the deadliest incident for the department since 1857, is under investigation as a possible training accident. Authorities suspect the device, recovered from a Santa Monica apartment complex the previous day, was thought to be inert. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, FBI, ATF, and LAPD Bomb Squad are probing the cause, which may take weeks or months to determine. Investigators are also searching a residence at 821 Bay Street in Santa Monica, where the deputies responded to a call about grenades found in a storage unit, possibly linked to a former tenant with military ties. Negligent homicide charges are being considered.
No other injuries were reported, and the LAPD Bomb Squad secured the scene by 11 a.m. The explosion shattered windows of nearby patrol vehicles, drawing onlookers to the cordoned-off area. A somber procession Friday evening saw the deputies’ caskets, draped in American flags, transported to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s office as law enforcement lined the streets in tribute.
Sheriff Robert Luna called the deputies “fantastic experts” who handled over 1,100 high-risk calls yearly, underscoring the profound loss. L.A. County Supervisors Janice Hahn, Hilda Solis, and Kathryn Barger, along with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Mayor Karen Bass, offered condolences and pledged support for the investigation.