Explosion that killed LA County deputies involved serious safety violations

LOS ANGELES– A state investigation found that the deaths of three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in grenade explosions last year involved “deliberate” and serious safety violations in the department, including lack of effective training and leaving explosives unattended.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations resulting in fines of approximately $350,000 in January. The sheriff’s department is appealing the citations, according to the state. The results of the investigation were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The July 2025 explosion in a training center parking lot killed Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn of the arson and explosives squad. This is one of the department’s worst losses of life in a single incident.

The day before, the team recovered two grenades from a Santa Monica apartment complex. Sheriff Robert Luna said detectives x-rayed the machines and believed they were “inert” or inactive.

At least one of the grenades was transported to an LASD training center, where it exploded. A week later, Luna announced that the second grenade was missing. The ministry is still investigating what happened to him.

An LASD spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

In a statement, a sheriff’s spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the department was complying with the demands of state investigators to the extent permitted by law, while other investigations were ongoing.

According to the state’s investigation, the Sheriff’s Department failed to correct unsafe working conditions and practices related to handling explosives, and failed to provide effective training. It did not ensure that employees used appropriate protective equipment when handling explosives, did not properly document training, or identify and assess hazards related to the transportation and storage of explosive materials.

Explosive materials were also left unattended and not stored properly or placed in “proper containers” when transported manually, said state Division of Occupational Safety and Health spokeswoman Denisse Gómez.

“This tragedy highlights the responsibility of employers to anticipate dangers and take meaningful steps to protect workers, especially in high-risk operations involving explosive materials,” Gómez said.

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health also sued the LASD in January for failing to comply with the investigation and provide subpoena materials.

When the state first requested training records, dispatch logs and grenade incident reports, as well as safety inspection records, the LASD responded with “only a limited number of documents,” one of which was almost entirely redacted, according to the complaint.

The state then issued a subpoena for additional documents, but the LASD “produced a limited set of documents meeting only two of the nineteen categories requested in the subpoena,” the lawsuit states.

In response, the sheriff’s department said in a court document that the state waited months to request documents, leaving them little time to respond to the request. He also said the bomb squad used FBI training materials that could not be released without “endangering public safety and national security” and would have to be requested directly from the FBI, according to court documents.