I am sorry they were killed, but this does not sound very professional for a state police department.
The correct procedure would be more like bring in an armored truck, have a robot load the bomb into the truck, and drive to the range for controlled detonation - wouldn’t it?
I agree that it’s not best practice to pick up and move a suspicious device, unprotected by armor. We don’t know much at this point, I guess we’ll know pretty well what happened over this coming week.
However, what we do know is that some evil bastard planted a bomb that could have killed children riding bikes but he/she/they (usually a loner male) decided their perceived grievance with society justified the carnage.
Prayers for their families.