EAST LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is in mourning Saturday for three detectives killed in an explosion at a training facility in East Los Angeles in the agency’s deadliest day since 1857.
Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn were identified by the department at 6:45 p.m. Friday as the personnel killed. They were all assigned to the Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail, according to the department.
“There are no words to express the pain and sorrow we feel,” Sheriff Robert Luna said in a statement. “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.”
Luna called the department’s Special Enforcement Bureau, “The best of the best.”
“The individuals who work our arson explosives detail, they have years of training,” Luna said during a midday news conference Friday near the facility. “They are fantastic experts, and unfortunately, I lost three of them today.”
The three detectives were moving ordnance in the training center’s parking lot when the blast occurred, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The blast was reported at 7:25 a.m. Friday at the Biscailuz Regional Training Center in the 1000 block of North Eastern Avenue, southwest of the interchange of the San Bernardino (10) and Long Beach (710) freeways, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
Luna said the site where the blast occurred was not rendered safe by investigators until late morning.
“There is definitely a black cloud hanging over the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department and our county family,” Luna said at the news conference.
Luna would not confirm reports suggesting the explosion involved unexploded ordnance that had been seized Thursday. However, on Friday, Santa Monica police, along with county and federal investigators, were seen searching an apartment complex near Lincoln Boulevard and Bay Street.
A resident of that complex told KTLA5 that police and sheriff’s officials had been at the building Thursday to retrieve some old grenades that a tenant found in a storage unit, apparently left behind by a previous tenant.
The search on Friday afternoon prompted an evacuation of at least part of that apartment complex as investigators swept the property for any additional potentially dangerous materials.
The sheriff’s department is investigating an apartment complex in the 800 block of Bay Street, near Lincoln Boulevard, in Santa Monica in connection with the explosion, department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida told The Times.
The three deputies killed in the blast responded to a call to assist the Santa Monica Police Department at the complex on Thursday, according to The Times.
The explosion is being investigated as a negligent homicide, which could result in charges against the person who made or stored the device, law enforcement sources told The Times.
Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on Fox11 the case could become a death penalty case.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger directed that county flags be flown at half-staff in honor of the fallen deputies.
A law enforcement procession began around 5 p.m. Friday to transfer the deputies’ bodies from the training center for the medical examiner’s office. Dozens of sheriff’s deputies stood in formation and saluted as the bodies were carried to a trio of medical examiner vans for the journey.
The vans were then escorted by deputies and other law enforcement representatives on the drive.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was among the federal officials to comment, saying on X that she had spoken with both Luna and U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles Bill Essayli. She also confirmed that the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting with the investigation.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more,” she wrote. “Please pray for the families of the sheriff’s deputies killed.”
ATF announced it has activated its National Response Team to deploy to the scene of the explosion. The team consists of special agents, certified fire investigators, a forensic chemist, intelligence research specialist, certified explosives specialist, law enforcement training specialist, fire protection engineer, electrical engineer and an accelerant detection dog with handler, according to the bureau.
Past team activations include more than 200 fire scenes resulting from the civil unrest throughout the Midwest in 2020 following the in-custody death of George Floyd, a series of bombings in Austin, Texas in 2018; and the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city was supporting the investigation with Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigators and LAPD bomb squad personnel.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of these impacted by this blast,” Bass said on X.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was briefed on the blast, and that the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services was in contact with the sheriff’s department and closely monitoring the situation, offering “full state assistance.”
Newsom’s office also announced the state had deployed investigative personnel from the Office of the State Fire Marshal at the request of the ATF. Those investigators were en route, he said.
Luna called Friday’s blast “the largest loss of life for us as the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department since 1857.” That was when Sheriff James Barton and several members of his posse, including three deputies, were ambushed in present-day Santa Ana by criminals they were pursuing. Barton died just three weeks into his second term, according to a sheriff’s department online historical timeline.
Friday’s tragedy is believed to be the worst involving an Los Angeles- area law-enforcement bomb squad since a February 1986 explosion on Vanscoy Avenue in North Hollywood that killed two Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad members.
That blast took the lives of the head of the LAPD bomb squad and another veteran squad member who were attempting to defuse a booby-trapped pipe bomb in the garage of a home where, several hours earlier, a suspect had been removed in connection with an ambush shooting.
Osborn graduated from the deputy sheriff academy in February 1992, according to the department. Villanueva said on a Fox11 newscast he was nearing retirement.
Kelley-Eklund graduated from the deputy sheriff academy in March 2006. Lemus joined the department on July 1, 2003 as a security assistant and graduated from the academy later that year, according to the department.
Osborn was initially assigned to Men’s Central Jail. He then transferred to Pico Rivera Station in 1998 as a patrol deputy. He transferred to Industry Station in 2001 and promoted to the rank of detective, where he received commendations for his work recovering stolen vehicles.
After working as a detective for over a decade, handling over 100 cases each year, Osborn transferred to Training Bureau as an Emergency Vehicle Operations Center Instructor in 2016. The department credited his love for investigations drawing him back to again being a detective.
Osborn joined Special Enforcement Bureau as an arson and explosive investigator in 2019, handling cases involving high-dollar loss fires in residential properties, as well as fires involving the loss of life.
He was described in an obituary supplied by the department as “one of tenured bomb technicians regularly relied upon when faced with a new challenge. He has broad range of experience and could be relied upon to provide relevant insight on broad range of subjects.”
Osborn is survived by his wife, Detective Shannon Rincon, four sons, and two daughters.
Kelley-Eklund was initially assigned to the Pitchess Detention Center North and North County Correctional Facility. He transferred to Lennox Sheriff Station in 2010 and became a field training officer at the South Los Angeles Station.
He was later promoted to detective at the Narotics Bureau in 2016 where he was assigned to the LA Impact Team investigating complex crimes, seizing large quantities of narcotics, and assisting in the arrests of murder suspects.
Kelley-Eklund became an arson and explosive investigator with the Special Enforcement Bureau in 2022 and received his bomb tech certifications and other training accolades.
Kelley-Eklund is survived by his wife Jessica Eklund and their seven children.
Lemus was assigned to Twin Towers Correctional Facility after graduating from the academy. He transferred to Century Station, where he worked as a senior training officer and detective.
Lemus transferred to the Special Enforcement Bureau in 2017 where he was assigned as a K-9 handler. He became an arson and explosive investigator last year. Lemus received commendations for his ability to mentor and train fellow deputies as well as notable arrests involving career criminals.
He began being a member of the Baker to Vegas relay team while assigned to Twin Towers Correctional Facility. He continued running on the team while at the Century Station, including running some of the most difficult legs of the relay.
Lemus is survived by his wife, sheriff’s detective Nancy Lemus and three daughters. He has three sisters who are also on the department — Sergeant Belen Lemus at the Special Victims Bureau, Deputy Perla Lemus of the Century Sheriff Station, and Custody Assistant Wendy Lemus of Population and Management Bureau.
A brother-in-law, Robert Catalan, is a sergeant assigned to the Carson Station.
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