State finds explosion that killed LA County deputies involved serious safety violations

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A state investigation has found that the deaths of three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a grenade explosion last year involved “willful” and serious safety violations in the department, including failure to provide effective training and leaving explosives unattended.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations resulting in about $350,000 in fines 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 the parking lot of a training facility killed detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn of the arson and explosives team. It was one of the department’s worst losses of life in a single incident.

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

At least one of the grenades was taken to an LASD training facility, where it detonated. A week later, Luna announced the second grenade was missing. The department is still investigating what happened to it.

In a statement, sheriff’s spokesperson Nicole Nishida said the department was complying with state investigators to the extent allowed under the law as other investigations remain ongoing.

Nishida said the department immediately collaborated with the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad, the FBI and the ATF to obtain an “independent assessment of the incident and identify ways to strengthen our procedures.”

The LASD has also updated its training manual and guidelines for its arson and explosives team response and introduced new equipment, Nishida said.

According to the state’s investigation, the sheriff’s department failed to correct unsafe working conditions and practices related to handling explosives, and did not provide effective training. It did not ensure that employees used proper protective equipment when handling explosives, properly document training, or identify and evaluate the hazards of transporting and storing explosive materials.

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

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

The Occupational Safety and Health Division also sued the LASD in January for not complying with the investigation and providing subpoenaed documents.

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

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

In a response, the sheriff’s department said in a court document that the state waited months to request documents, giving them little time to fulfill the request. It also said the bomb squad used FBI training materials that could not be disclosed without “jeopardizing public safety and national security” and that they would need to be requested from the FBI directly, according to court documents.

Nishida said that the LASD is working with county attorneys to ensure that “all information provided complies with legal requirements and does not compromise the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”