Posted on 07/21/2025 11:22:08 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The explosives that detonated and killed three L.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputies may have been found in a storage unit at an apartment complex in Santa Monica, a law enforcement source tells KTLA. The source then reported that authorities initially thought the explosives, military-style grenades, were inert before they cut one open the next day as part of a training exercise.
The blast occurred last Friday morning at the Biscailuz Regional Training Center in East Los Angeles.
The three deputies, Detective Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Detective Victor Lemus and Detective William Osborn, were killed while moving “undetonated ordnance,” sources told KTLA on Friday. All three were assigned to the LASD Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail.
...
A source told KTLA that the explosives found in the apartment’s storage unit on Thursday may be what killed the deputies on Friday. It was later reported by the same source that the explosives, two military-style grenades, were X-rayed at the scene and deemed inert on Thursday.
The grenades, according to the source, had been stolen by a member of the U.S. military during their training. The three deputies loaded them into their unit and took them back to East Los Angeles.
Per the law enforcement source, on the following day, the deputies cut one of the grenades in half as a training exercise in order to examine what was inside of it thinking it would not explode; however, that is when the device detonated.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Maybe... but then sawing the steel body in half creates a shower of sparks and heat and pressure. And it’s filled with composition B explosives.
It was a very stupid idea someone had. The grenades should have gone into the normal disposal at the range where things are safely destroyed. They could have obtained an inert cut away grenade from the manufacturer.
This whole episode makes me think of a documentary I saw on the Vietnam war. It showed two VC taking a hacksaw to an unexploded bomb so they could dig out the explosive material for a booby trap.
Damn those guys were brave.
I’ve seen a few go off
I wouldn’t mess with them
I had a pal making yet another bomb with black powder in a coffee can
He decided to use a match to peer inside
He’s red faced to this day 50 years later lol
Doesn’t the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department have a bomb squad with experts who know how to disable these things?
Det. William Osborn
Osborn joined the Sheriff’s Department in 1992 and had a deep love of investigations and a reputation as a peer leader, according to a department news release. He became a member of the agency’s elite special enforcement bureau in 2019 and was described as “one of [the] tenured bomb technicians regularly relied upon when faced with a new challenge.”
“They’re the best of the best,” Luna said of the agency’s special enforcement bureau.
“From all the early news reports saying that a car exploded...”
Does the SUV in the photos look exploded?
3 deputies killed in East L.A. explosion leave behind 16 children
by: Lily Dallow
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/3-deputies-killed-in-east-l-a-explosion-leave-behind-16-children/
Reminds me of the old grenade toss in basic training in 68. We were in the UUU bunkers. I was in the left one. Trainee in middle tosses grenade, hits the wall in front and no one knew where it went. Sergeant in my bunker turned white (kind of difficult but he did) and it finally went off, just over the barrier. We all got hit by falling scrapple and fortunately no one got hurt. IMO it was not an accident.
When we later got into the two man assault drill, live fire, one supporting the other up the hill, I refused to get near this clown as I was concerned he would “accidently” hit me. The CO pulled him off the line and took his rifle saying he did not want an “accident” on his watch. He got processed through basic anyway.
Maybe they were looking for something else inside the grenade shell. Something other than explosive that had been returned from where this soldier had been deployed.
Well training also would say only the number of people needed to do the task should be anywhere near the explosive or possible explosive.
Then he shoulda known better.
“Then he shoulda known better.”
I agree.
During the sawing they could have required the watchers to step back X number of paces as a simple protocol.
‘Step back, come forward’, it is simple, at their base they probably have a barrier, ‘move behind barrier, come forward’, simple, Xray techs do it.
Revising my previous. I am sure he knew better.
I am sure he knew the rules and precautions.
This was no training exercise. It was three dudes ignoring safety and training.
During my introduction to the 105 artillery piece we fired my gun and the shell hit right in front of us like a 100 yards more or less? I was too new to know what had just happened other than to feel that this had to have been a mistake, we never saw that sergeant again.
Well, that report will leave many speculators here disappointed.
Yes guess the training didn’t take?.
All three already had kids. They may not have beaten their training, nor the grenade, but they beat Darwin.
Or Moe and Larry X-rayed a different inert grenade so they could take the live one to the range, but neglected to tell Curly.
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