ATF Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper speaks during the press conference.Screen Shot from LASD Video
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Saturday (July 26, 2025) that one of the two grenades recovered before three Arson Explosives Detail deputies were killed July 18 (2025) at an East Los Angeles training center cannot be located.
Luna said in the press conference that the day before the tragic explosion the Arson Explosives Detail responded to a call for assistance from the Santa Monica Police Department. The Santa Monica Police had been called out to a residential complex by a tenant who found two grenades in a storage unit. Deputies from the LASD Arson Explosives Detail X-rayed the devices at the scene and they believed the devices to be “inert,” Luna said.
The next day one of the grenades exploded at the Biscailuz Training Facility, killing Detective Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Detective Victor Lemus, and Detective William Osborn.
ATF Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper is heading the post-blast investigation. He said that ATF has searched the site with K-9s, drones, and personnel in bucket trucks (checking the trees) for the missing grenade. Cooper said definitively that only one grenade detonated at the facility on July 18. He added that the search has included areas far beyond the blast capability of a grenade.
Neither Cooper nor Luna would comment on what exactly the detectives were doing with the grenades at the time of the explosion.
Luna said an independent review was being conducted of all Arson Explosives Detail policies, practices, and equipment. He stressed that one change that has already been implemented is that all devices will be treated as live even if the bomb techs believe they are inert.
“I never want this to happen again,” Luna said.
He added that the investigative report on the explosion will be released in 45 days.
