L.A. County reviews criminal charges after grenade blast kills three sheriff’s detectives at training facility

Wed, 06 May 2026 08:27:00 +0200

Last summer, a grenade exploded at an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department training facility, killing three members of the agency’s arson and explosives bomb squad: Detectives Victor Lemus, Joshua Kelley‑Eklund and William Osborn. The blast occurred at the Biscailuz Center Training Academy in East Los Angeles and marked the department’s deadliest single incident in more than 150 years. The explosives had been retrieved from a storage area in a Santa Monica apartment complex and later transported to the training site, where the device detonated. Sheriff’s homicide detectives have since focused on a former U.S. special operations member who allegedly left the grenades in the complex, and search warrants have been executed on a yacht and storage lockups tied to him in Marina del Rey. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is now reviewing whether to file criminal charges against any individuals involved in the handling of the grenades or other parties responsible for safety lapses.