Three Sheriff’s Deputies Killed In Los Angeles During Explosion

Articles | July 18, 2025 | by Catholics for Catholics

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The FBI is helping in the investigation.

By Catholics for Catholics | July 18, 2025

Three Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies were killed during an explosion Friday in the deadliest incident that law enforcement agency has suffered in 160 years.

The LA Sheriff’s Department is the biggest of its kind in the country, made-up of some of the finest-trained officers in the world. The force is considered an elite law enforcement agency and one of the best trained and equipped in the country.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the fallen deputies belonged to the arson explosives detail, an elite unit within an elite law enforcement agency. The officers were moving ordnance in the Biscailuz Center Training Academy’s parking lot about 7:30 a.m. when the explosion happened. Officers had collected the explosive device in Santa Monica on Thursday, law enforcement sources told The Times.

At the time of publication, the names of the deputies who perished at the scene have not been released. But Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that the officers had served between 19 and 33 years with the Department.

“They’re the best of the best,” Luna said of the agency’s special enforcement bureau. “And the individuals who work our arson explosives detail, they have years of training. … They are fantastic experts, and unfortunately, I lost three of them today.”

Luna said it will take time — possibly weeks or months — to investigate the incident.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi called the situation a “horrific incident” in a statement Friday and asked for prayers for the deputies’ families.

“I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles,” Bondi said in a post on X on Friday. Her comment was reposted by U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who did not offer a statement, a short while later.

Bondi added that “federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more” and called on people to “please pray for the families of the sheriff’s deputies killed.”

The FBI is assisting the Sheriff’s Department in the investigation of the tragedy.

The Sheriff’s bomb squad collects prospective explosives across the county on a daily basis, but it’s a situation that’s always laden with danger because it’s hard to assess the stability of materials and their age, law enforcement sources told The Times.