Device that exploded and killed 3 Los Angeles sheriff's detectives was a grenade, department says
LOS ANGELES -- The device that exploded last week at a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department facility and killed three detectives was a grenade, ABC News sources confirmed on Monday.
Agents and detectives had investigated a Santa Monica apartment complex in connection with Friday's explosion, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.
According to ABC News sources, the grenades were allegedly left by a previous tenant of the complex. The bomb squad team X-rayed the grenades, which were believed to have been inert, before the detectives moved them back to the facility, where they exploded Friday.
The HOA president told a resident that a former tenant who had been in the military may have left the grenades behind, and a current resident discovered them in her storage locker last Thursday.
Over the weekend, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) National Response Team took over the investigation.
Meanwhile, the sheriff's department said a search warrant was executed Monday in Marina Del Rey in connection with the case, adding that investigators are following "all leads and evidence to determine the origins of the devices."
"I saw about 50 cop cars, cops coming out with bulletproof-looking vests on and continuing to come down, and all kind of hovering over on the marina, right by the water," said Rachel McCord, a Marina Del Rey resident.
Community honors three detectives killed
A makeshift memorial for the detectives outside the training facility continues to grow as deputies and members of the public stop by to pay their respects.
The three men killed were identified as detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn. They were described as elite members of the Special Enforcement Bureau's Arson Explosives Detail, with a collective 74 years of service. Between them, the three men leave behind 16 children.
The sheriff's department said details regarding memorial services will be announced in the coming days.
Sheriff Robert Luna called the department's Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) "the best of the best.''
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Meanwhile, flags are flying at half-staff across the county and at the state's capitol in honor of the three detectives.
The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs is collecting online donations through the ALADS C.A.R.E.S. Foundation to support the detectives' families.
Rudy Gonzalez, who also works in law enforcement, says he's raising money for all three families by selling T-shirts with the detectives' names, the bomb squad, and the sheriff's department logo.
"I just want to make sure the kids are taken care of, the families are taken care of, and that they know they still have an extended family out there with us," Gonzalez said.
SEE ALSO: Longtime colleague of LASD deputies killed in explosion says they were the 'best of the best'
