Investigators served a search warrant on Monday morning, July 21, in Marina del Rey in connection to an explosion that killed three deputies at a Sheriff’s Department facility on Friday, July 18, authorities said.
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The warrant was served on the 13900 block of Marquesas Way, an area that holds apartment complexes and some businesses and extends into the Pacific Ocean with docks holding rows of boats.
Serving the search warrant were sheriff’s homicide investigators, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Los Angeles Police Department. It was unclear exactly where the search was conducted, and what was learned from it by investigators.
On Thursday, July 17, items that appeared to be grenades were found on the 800 block of Bay Street in Santa Monica by the sheriff’s Arson Explosives Detail, which was called to the scene to assist the Santa Monica Police Department on a report of possible explosives, authorities said.
The materials were transported to the Biscailuz Center Academy Training Center in East Los Angeles.
The next day, three sheriff’s deputies were killed by a blast at that center, where the Arson Explosives Detail is based. Details of what occurred have not been disclosed. The explosion occurred just after 7:30 a.m.
The deputies — Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn — were members of the unit that responds to over 1,000 calls each year.
ATF investigators are trying to reconstruct what happened on Friday, and “determine if the devices found on Thursday were in fact the cause of the explosion that occurred on Friday,” a Sheriff’s Department statement said. “These investigations take time, and we are committed to conducting a thorough examination to accurately determine the cause.”