Photo: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Private funeral services will be held over a one- week period next month for three detectives who were killed when ordnance exploded at a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department facility.
The blast, which occurred about 7:30 a.m. July 18 at the Biscailuz Regional Training Center, killed sheriff's detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn.
Although a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-led investigation continues, it is believed it involved one of two grenades seized from a Santa Monica apartment complex storage bin a day before the deadly explosion.
Funeral services for the fallen detectives will be held over a seven- day span beginning Aug. 5 for Osborn in Yorba Linda, then Aug. 7 for Ecklund in Santa Clarita and Aug. 12 for Lemus in Chino. At the request of the families, all of the services will be private, with no accommodations for the public or media.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna has said sheriff's Arson Explosives Detail investigators assisted Santa Monica police on July 17 to retrieve a pair of grenades that were found in an apartment building storage unit near Bay Street and Lincoln Boulevard. The devices were examined, X-rayed and believed to be inert, but sheriff's officials retrieved the grenades and took them to the Biscailuz facility in the 1000 block of North Eastern Avenue "to be destroyed and rendered safe."
It remains unclear what caused the single grenade to detonate, but Luna said the investigation determined that only one device exploded.
The whereabouts of the second grenade remain unknown. Luna said the department has begun an internal investigation into the handling of the situation.
Investigators have returned to the Santa Monica apartment building to conduct a more thorough search, and at least two search warrants have been executed in Marina del Rey, where authorities were seen searching a boat and a storage facility.
No details of that investigation have been released.
Anyone with information on either of the two devices was asked to call 1-888-ATF-TIPS (8477), or the LASD Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).