Investigators in L.A. Explosion Examine Condo for Link to Explosives

U.S.|Investigators in L.A. Explosion Examine Condo for Link to Explosives

The authorities are investigating whether an explosion that killed three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on Friday was caused by devices seized from a condo in Santa Monica the day before.

Residents of the complex on Thursday afternoon were notified by their homeowners association that “an unidentified potential explosive device has been found in the garage” and that everyone needed to evacuate, according to an email that a resident shared with The New York Times.

“I don’t think we are in immediate danger,” but a bomb squad was on its way to assess, the message continued.

As residents evacuated, the three deputies, all bomb squad members with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, rushed to Santa Monica on Thursday, found what appeared to be explosive devices and brought them back to their headquarters, the same site as the training facility, on the other side of the county, officials said. The next morning, they were killed in the explosion.

The circumstances around the blast are still unknown, and it was unclear on Saturday if the explosives from Santa Monica were the ones that killed the deputies. But homicide detectives are probing that possibility. A state official briefed on the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation, said preliminary information had suggested that the explosion did not stem from a training exercise but from handling explosives that had been seized the previous night.

The official also said that once investigators with the F.B.I. and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who joined the sheriff’s department’s homicide investigators, complete their work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would conduct its own probe on workplace safety issues.