Explosive that killed 3 L.A. County sheriff's deputies was recovered in Santa Monica, source says
- - - Explosive that killed 3 L.A. County sheriff's deputies was recovered in Santa Monica, source says
Richard Winton, Nathan Solis, Hannah Fry, Christopher Buchanan, Connor SheetsJuly 18, 2025 at 11:38 AM
L.A. County sheriff's deputies are shown outside the Biscailuz Center Training Academy, where three deputies were killed during a training accident Friday morning. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Three deputies were killed Friday in an explosion at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Biscailuz Center Training Academy in East L.A., the deadliest incident for the agency in more than 160 years.
Deputies with the arson explosives detail, an elite unit within the Sheriff's Department, were moving ordnance in the training center's parking lot about 7:30 a.m. when the blast occurred. The explosive device had been collected in Santa Monica on Thursday, law enforcement sources told The Times.
The deputies, who have not been publicly identified, died at the scene. They had served between 19 and 33 years with the department, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a Friday morning news conference.
"They're the best of the best," 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.”
He said it will take time — possibly weeks or months — to investigate the incident.
The bomb squad picks up potential explosives across the region on a daily basis, but it's a situation that's always fraught with danger because it's hard to assess the stability of materials and their age, law enforcement sources told The Times.
After the explosion, the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad responded to the scene to help render any other potential explosive materials safe. It took authorities several hours to complete the process, Luna aid. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also assisting with the investigation.
Employees told The Times they heard a massive boom around 7:30 a.m. coming from the parking lot where the sheriff's bomb squad keeps its vehicles. They heard 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."
In radio communications reviewed by The Times, a sheriff's dispatcher told units that there was an "explosion with three down." She later advised that a sheriff's weapons team leader said investigators should "not approach" the scene.
In the aftermath, officials covered the blast area with a large tarp as they collected evidence and worked to render the device safe. About 25 yards from the facility, glass was scattered across the parking lot from the windows of an SUV cruiser that were blown out by the explosion. A sheriff's helicopter circled over the area as multiple emergency vehicles streamed into the facility.
At one point, video from the scene showed a bomb technician in a blast suit approaching the site and removing some material before returning to the area where investigators were gathering evidence.
Ed Nordskog, a former member of the department’s arson explosives detail and a 34-year department veteran, said the agency's bomb and arson unit is one of the largest and busiest in the United States. The squad gets daily calls to handle military ordnance that spans from the modern era back to World War I, as well as commercial explosives, blasting dynamite from mining operations, suspicious packages and homemade or improvised items.
"All have different aspects that are dangerous," he said. "It’s a job that requires at least a year of formal training to be able to work, and several years of field experience to feel fully proficient."
Former L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told KTLA-TV Channel 5 in an interview that the arson explosives detail includes some of the agency's most experienced personnel.
"The loss is just staggering," he said. "It's gonna take a while to figure out how this happened, why this happened, could it have been prevented."
The explosion and resulting deaths sent shock waves across Los Angeles County and prompted many unanswered questions. Flags at county buildings were lowered to half-staff in mourning.
Two of the deputies who were killed were sometimes assigned to provide security at county board meetings in downtown Los Angeles, according to officials.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she was "heartbroken" by the situation and that the entire county is grieving for the deputies and their 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."
Jason Zabala, who works for the Sheriff's Department's SWAT team and was a colleague and friend of the deputies who died Friday, echoed Luna's comments that they were the "best of the best." He was in shock, he said, his voice breaking as he talked about his friends.
"I can think of no greater honor, truly, than to die in the service of people," he said. "That's why we sign up, and it's tragic, but I'm sure their families are proud of their service, as I am."
The dangers of the profession aren't lost on those who wear the uniform or their families, Zabala said, but it doesn't keep them from doing their jobs.
"You do this job for a reason. You don't really think about it day to day, until something like this happens, and then you realize how dangerous it really is," he said. "I know our families go through that. I know my family goes through that probably every day. But we truly love the work we do."
Tony Meraz, a veteran sheriff's deputy who knew all three of the men killed in the explosion, said their deaths leave a void in the hearts of their friends, families and the department that will never be filled.
"All three of these men are the kind of cops that if your loved one calls 911, you want them to show up, whether it is an active shooter, a traffic collision or because your mom is lost," Meraz said. "They are all gone in the blink of an eye."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said on X that he had been briefed on the explosion, and the state deployed investigative personnel from the Office of the State Fire Marshal to help determine what happened.
U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi called the situation a "horrific incident" in a statement Friday and asked for prayers for the deputies' families.
The Biscailuz Center Training Academy was used for deputy training from 1946 to 1984, when it was closed because of a 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 explosion drew several spectators to the edge of a perimeter erected by deputies as they continued their investigation. The lack of information in the immediate aftermath of the blast spawned a string of theories by the small audience gathered at Eastern and Marianna avenues.
One man shouted questions to the deputies standing nearby. Another woman wondered aloud how such an accident could have happened.
Luisa Lopez, an employee at Medsco, a sheet metal fabrication facility, said their machines had obscured the sound of the blast, but she became aware of the accident when authorities began racing toward the facility.
“When we heard all the noise of the police, we didn’t think anything of it because they pass [by] all the time," she said.
Richard Montoya, who lives about a quarter of a mile from the blast area, said he and his children were jolted by three successive explosions that shook his house. At first he thought the explosion might have been fireworks, which are common in the neighborhood after the Fourth of July.
But he said he realized it wasn't fireworks because it felt stronger, like a small earthquake.
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Source: “AOL General News”
