Bomb squad technicians who responded to a Santa Monica townhome complex where a resident reported finding grenades X-rayed the explosives and told city police they believed the devices were inert, according to a new search warrant in the investigation into the explosion that killed three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives last week.
The bomb squad retrieved two hand grenades left behind — apparently by a previous tenant — in an underground parking garage storage unit at the Bay Street complex on Thursday night and took them to the Biscailuz Center Training Academy. The next day, at least one of the grenades exploded as the technicians were handling them in the parking lot.
The blast was the single deadliest incident for the department in more than 150 years, killing department veterans Dets. Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn.
Investigators with the sheriff’s department’s homicide bureau and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are still trying to determine exactly how the detonation happened and how the devices ended up inside the storage unit. It’s unclear whether officials still believed the grenades were inert when they were handled on Friday.
A search warrant, issued on Friday and reviewed by The Times on Wednesday, authorized investigators to search the storage units inside the complex for incendiary devices, accelerants, surveillance footage, explosives and other hazardous materials.
“At this point in the investigation, due to the fact the Arson and Explosives detectives that responded to 821 Bay Street, Santa Monica are deceased, coupled with the fact detectives do not know if the area was rendered safe … Detectives Mezzano and Delia believe a search of the storage sheds in the parking structure of the townhome complex is necessary to render the area safe for the residents that live in and around the townhome complex,” Sgt. Anthony Delia wrote in the affidavit in support of the search warrant.
According to the affidavit, Santa Monica Police Officer Kyle Nichols told investigators that the sheriff’s department arson detectives believed the hand grenades were inert when they responded to the scene, but took them “to be destroyed and rendered safe.” Law enforcement sources told The Times this week that the technicians had cut into at least one of the grenades before it detonated.
Authorities said it was too early in the investigation to determine whether the transportation or handling of the explosives was according to department protocol and emphasized that the inquiry could take weeks or months to complete.
Officials searched a boat docked in Marina del Rey on Monday and storage lockers on Tuesday and Wednesday that law enforcement sources told The Times are tied to a person who previously served in the U.S. military.
On Wednesday, authorities were seen carrying out suitcases, bins and hard-shelled storage cases as they rummaged through a storage unit behind an apartment building in the 4200 block of Marquesas Way in Marina del Rey.
Officials have not revealed what, if anything, they’ve discovered during their searches of the vessel or storage units.
