LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The investigation into an explosion that killed three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in East Los Angeles has turned to Marina del Rey, where investigators served a search warrant at a boat docked in the marina.
“This morning, sheriff’s homicide investigators, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Los Angeles Police Department, served a search warrant at the 13900 block of Marquesas Way in Marina Del Rey,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement Monday. “Investigators are following all leads and evidence to determine the origins of the devices located on Thursday.”
It was unclear what, if anything, was recovered, or what led investigators to the location.
The search adds to a continuing investigation into an apartment building in Santa Monica, where several devices possibly connected to Friday’s deadly blast were seized on Thursday.
“Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigators are continuing to conduct their post-blast investigation and reconstruct the incident scene to determine if the devices found on Thursday were in fact the cause of the explosion that occurred on Friday,” according to the sheriff’s department statement. “These investigations take time, and we are committed to conducting a thorough examination to accurately determine the cause.”
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.
Killed in the blast were sheriff’s detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn, all of whom worked for the department’s Arson Explosives Detail.
The trio had more than 70 years of combined experience with the department.
“There are no words to express the pain and sorrow we feel,” Sheriff Robert Luna said in a statement over the weekend. “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.”
It is suspected the detectives were killed when ordnance collected a day earlier from a Santa Monica apartment building storage bin exploded in the training center’s parking lot, according to the sheriff’s department.
According to the sheriff’s department, investigators assisted the Santa Monica Police Department last Thursday at the building in the 800 block of Bay Street, near Lincoln Boulevard, and recovered items “that appeared to be grenades.”
Santa Monica police, along with county and federal investigators, were back at that complex Friday afternoon conducting a more thorough search.
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 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 Los Angeles Times.
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.
Kelley-Eklund joined the LASD in March 2006 and was later assigned to the Pitchess Detention Center North and North County Correctional Facility. He transferred to the Lennox station in 2010 and became a field training officer at the South Los Angeles station, mentoring trainees.
Kelley-Eklund was promoted to the rank of detective at the Narcotics Bureau in 2016, and was assigned to the LA Impact Team investigating complex crimes, seizing large quantities of narcotics, and assisting in the arrests of murder suspects. In 2022, he became an Arson and Explosive Investigator with the Special Enforcement Bureau and received his bomb tech certifications as well as other training accolades.
Kelley-Eklund is survived by his wife, Jessica Eklund, and their seven children.
Victor Lemus joined the LASD on July 1, 2003, as a security assistant. He completed the Deputy Sheriff Academy in 2003 before he was assigned to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility where he ran on the Baker to Vegas running team. Following that, he transferred to the LASD’s Century station, where he worked as a senior training officer and detective. He transferred to the Special Enforcement Bureau in 2017 where he was assigned as a K-9 handler prior to becoming an arson and explosive investigator last year. He received commendations for his ability to mentor and train fellow deputies as well as notable arrests involving career criminals.
Lemus is survived by his wife, LASD Detective Nancy Lemus, and three daughters. He has three sisters who are also in the department. He is also survived by his brothers Alfredo, Pedro, Juan, and Efren and brother-in-law Sgt. Robert Catalan, who is assigned to the LASD’s Carson station.
Osborn graduated from the Sheriff’s Academy in February 1992 and was assigned to the Men’s Central Jail. He transferred to Pico Rivera station in 1998 as a patrol deputy, and to the Industry station in 2001 before he was promoted to detective, where he received commendations for his work recovering stolen vehicles.
Osborn transferred to the Training Bureau as an Emergency Vehicle Operations Center instructor in 2016, but his love for investigations drew him back to detective work and he joined the 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 as “one of (the) 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.”
He is survived by his wife, Detective Shannon Rincon, four sons, and two daughters.
Sheriff’s deputies and members of the public were visiting a growing memorial at the Biscailuz Center to pay respects to the detectives.
The explosion is under investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and the sheriff’s department.
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