Law enforcement expert reacts to missing grenade: 'The question everyone is asking'

EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A grenade remains missing a little more than a week after an explosion killed three detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in East L.A.

On Friday, Sheriff Robert Luna said two grenades were transported from a Santa Monica apartment building storage unit to the Sheriff's Department training facility in East L.A. on Thursday, July 17.

The grenades were X-rayed and believed to be inert. They were transported by arson detectives to be destroyed at the sheriff's training facility in East L.A.

Now, one of them is missing.

The ATF confirms that one of those grenades exploded the next day, killing the three detectives. The agency says there is no evidence of a second device at the scene.

The sheriff is promising a full investigation.

"We're going to turn this upside down," Luna said. "We're going to look at everything we could. Why? Because we need to know what happened. We owe it to the families. And for God's sake, I never want this to happen again."

Luna and Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Los Angeles office, urged anyone in the public who may spot what appears to be the device to avoid touching it and call 911.

Eyewitness News spoke to law enforcement expert Bruce Thomas about how the department could have possibly lost a grenade.

"That's the question everyone is asking," Thomas said. "One of the things the investigation will bear out is: Were all protocols taken? Were all procedures followed? When they got to the location, they x-rayed the military grenades, determined they were inert, at that point it's safe to transport. So in this case, transporting them in their arson explosives vehicle would not have been a problem. But clearly, something went wrong."

Thomas says he's heard the ATF should conclude its investigation within the next week.

Meanwhile, the memorial just outside the entrance of the sheriff's training facility grows for the three detectives who lost their lives.

People have turned up with flowers and mementos -- paying their respects to the families and the 16 children collectively who lost their fathers.

The bodies of the detectives were transported from the medical examiner's office on Friday and driven in a somber procession to a funeral home in Covina.

Once there, the families of each deputy escorted the caskets inside. We are told funeral services are still being planned for the three men.

The three detectives killed were identified as Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn.

Investigators are also continuing their search into who owned the grenades. Search warrants were served on a boat and an apartment building garage in Marina del Rey.