LOS ANGELES — California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations totaling about $350,000 in fines to the Los Angeles County sheriff's department in January for willful safety violations linked to a July 2025 grenade explosion that killed three detectives. The department is appealing the citations.

The explosion in the parking lot of a training facility killed detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn of the arson and explosives team. According to a state investigation, the incident involved willful and serious safety violations, including failure to provide effective training and leaving explosives unattended.

The day before the explosion, the arson and explosives team recovered two grenades from a Santa Monica apartment complex. "The detectives X-rayed the devices and believed they were inert, or inactive," Sheriff Robert Luna said. At least one of the grenades was taken to a Los Angeles County sheriff's department training facility, where it detonated.

A week after the explosion, Luna announced that the second grenade was missing. The sheriff's department is investigating the whereabouts of the second grenade.

The state investigation found that the sheriff's department failed to correct unsafe working conditions and practices related to handling explosives. According to the investigation, the department did not provide effective training related to handling explosives, did not ensure that employees used proper protective equipment when handling explosives, did not properly document training related to handling explosives, and did not identify and evaluate the hazards of transporting and storing explosive materials.

"Explosive materials were left unattended and not stored properly or placed in suitable containers when transported manually," said Denisse Gómez, a spokesperson. "This tragedy underscores the responsibility employers have to anticipate hazards and take meaningful steps to protect workers, especially in high-risk operations involving explosive materials."

Sheriff's spokesperson Nicole Nishida said the department is complying with state investigators to the extent allowed under the law as other investigations remain ongoing. "The department immediately collaborated with the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad, the FBI and the ATF to obtain an independent assessment of the incident and identify ways to strengthen our procedures," Nishida said. The department updated its training manual and guidelines for its arson and explosives team response and introduced new equipment.

The Occupational Safety and Health Division sued the Los Angeles County sheriff's department in January for not complying with the investigation and providing subpoenaed documents, according to court filings. When the state first requested training records, dispatch logs, incident reports related to the grenades, and safety inspection records, the sheriff's department responded with only a limited number of documents, one of which was almost entirely redacted. The state issued a subpoena for additional documents, but the sheriff's department produced a limited set of documents responsive to only two of the nineteen categories requested in the subpoena.