Three L.A. Deputies Killed in Explosion at Training Facility

Safety at Work

Los Angeles, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – Los Angeles Police said three deputies were killed Friday in an explosion at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Biscailuz Center Training Academy.

Officials said it was the deadliest incident for the agency in more than 160 years. According to reports, deputies with the department’s arson explosive detail were moving ordnance in the training center’s parking lot about 7:30 when the explosion happened. Deputies identified the deceased as Dets. Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn. The deputies had served 19, 22 and 33 years with the department, respectively, officials said.

The department said it was investigating an apartment complex in Santa Monica in connection to the explosion. Nicole Nishida, the department spokesperson said the deputies killed in the blast had responded to a call to assist the Santa Monica Police Department at the complex the day before.

Officials said the explosion is being investigated as a negligent homicide. Law enforcement said the investigation could result in charges against the person who made or stored the device the deputies moved. Investigators also recovered a grenade at the Santa Monica apartment complex on Thursday.

The deputies were part of the bomb squad. That unit picks up potential explosives across the region. Law enforcement sources told the LA Times the job was hard because it was always hard to assess the stability of materials and their age.

After the explosion, the LAPD’s bomb squad responded to the scene to help with any other potential explosive materials safe.

“They’re the best of the best,” Sheriff Robert Luna said of the agency’s special enforcement bureau. “And the individuals who work our arson explosives detail, they have years of training. ... They are fantastic experts, and unfortunately, I lost three of them today.”

Witnesses told the Times they heard an explosion coming from the parking lot where the bomb squad keeps its vehicles around 7:30 in the morning. The explosion, they said, was followed by glass shattering and screaming.

Rich Pippin, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, called it the “worst day in the history of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”

“You never get up in the morning expecting this kind of news, never, and sadly, as often as we deal with this, it does not get easier,” he said. “It never gets easier. It hurts.”

By 5 p.m., three coffins draped with American flags were loaded onto trucks and transported to the L.A. County Medical Examiner. Rows of law enforcement members lines the street the trucks drove down, as another American flag was hoisted between two ladder fire trucks for the convoy to pass through.

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she was “heartbroken” by deaths and that the city, the county and the surrounding areas are grieving with the police department and the victims’ families.

“These deputies went to work expecting to come home and they didn’t,” Barger said. “I hope the takeaway is that we should all remember to have compassion and empathy and give law enforcement a break.”

On X, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said he had been briefed on the explosion and that investigative personnel from the Office of the State Fire Marshal were working to determine what had happened.

The outpouring of sympathy reached across the country to Washington, D.C. U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi called the incident “horrific” and called for prayers for the deputies’ families.

The Biscailuz Center Training Academy was used for training between 1946 to 1984 and was closed because of lack of space. The 36,000-square-foot training center was renovated and reopened in 2017. The facility houses the sheriff’s special enforcement bureau and the arson explosive detail, including the bomb squad.

The last death of an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy in the line of duty happened in April 2024. In that incident, Alfredo Flores suffered burns during a fire at a shooting range at the Pitchess Detention Center on Oct. 10, 2023. Flores, a 22-year- deputy, was undergoing firearms recertification when the trailer-style range burst into flames. The range master on duty that day, Mark Thorn, said he and Flores were trapped inside the range by a jammed door. Thorn said he was able to escape and suffered “catastrophic” burns.

Both Flores’ family and Thorn have filed complaints against the department because of the incident.

Flores’ family’s attorney said the sheriff’s department should have known the range was in danger of catching fire because of the buildup of gunpowder, lead and other combustibles inside the trailer. Workplace regulators had cited the sheriff’s office saying that “accumulated propellant” inside the shooting range posed a fire risk. The California Division of OSHA fined the office more than $300,000 in 2024 for violations. The Sheriff’s office has appealed the decision, but the trailer-style units are no longer in use.

Prior to that, in 1967, a reserve deputy was killed in a training exercise. Michael Wigderson was attempting to disarm an instructor at a training facility in East Los Angeles when the instructor’s gun went off. Officials said the gun should not have been loaded. Wigderson died from a gunshot to his stomach and a second deputy was struck in the arm, a bulletin published by the Sheriff’s Department museum said.

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