VIDEO/PHOTOS: Three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the arson explosives detail were killed in an explosion at a law enforcement training facility on Friday, the sheriff said. These fatalities at the Biscailuz Training Center in Monterey Park mark the largest loss of life incident for the LA County Sheriff’s Department since 1857, Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference.
No one else was hurt, the sheriff said, and the bomb squad rendered the scene safe. The cause of the explosion is still not known, the sheriff said. Luna called it an isolated incident and said there’s no threat to the community. Multiple law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News that it appears an explosive had been brought back to the facility from a seemingly routine bomb squad callout on Thursday and was believed to have been inert when it later exploded.
In a statement Friday evening, the sheriff’s department said authorities were returning to the Santa Monica residence where the deputies picked up the possible device that exploded and were planning to search the area for any potential explosive materials out of an abundance of caution.
