Santa Monica Apartment Focus of Widening Probe After Deadly LA Sheriff’s Blast Kills Three Deputies
Santa Monica Apartment Focus of Widening Probe After Deadly LA Sheriff’s Blast Kills Three Deputies

Authorities are intensely investigating a deadly explosion at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Biscailuz Center Training Academy in East Los Angeles that claimed the lives of three deputies on Friday. The probe has now expanded to include a Santa Monica apartment complex, where investigators are exploring a potential connection to explosives collected prior to the blast.
The explosion occurred Friday morning while deputies were handling explosive materials. Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn, with a combined 74 years of service, were identified as the fallen. The cause of the blast remains undetermined, but the investigation led authorities to an apartment building on the 800 block of Bay Street in Santa Monica.
Sources indicate that the three deceased deputies had responded to a call at the Santa Monica complex on Thursday, where a grenade was reportedly recovered from a tenant’s storage unit. Residents reported finding a bag of grenades believed to have been left by a former occupant. Santa Monica Police evacuated the building Friday afternoon as authorities, including the FBI and LAPD bomb squad, conducted a thorough search for additional explosive material. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to lead a federal inquiry into the incident.
The tragedy marks what Rich Pippin, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, called the “worst day in the history of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,” highlighting the profound grief felt across the force.
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