Investigators executed a search warrant on a boat in Marina del Rey and continued their investigation into the deaths of three bomb technicians killed when weapons collected in Santa Monica exploded at a training center on Friday.
It is not clear what was found on the boat in the 13,900 block of the Marchesa Sway. However, investigators have determined the origin of the hand-rena bullet found in the storage area of the Santa Monica Apartment Complex last week, and say it is being transported to East LA, where the explosion occurred Friday morning.
The explosives, described by law enforcement sources as military-grade hand rena bullets and fuses, were taken from the 800 block of Bay Street complex on Thursday night and moved to the Viscales Center Training Academy, where photographs and stored. Officials believed that at least the hand rena bullets were inert and that the engineers had x-rays or scanned some of the weapons and cut them into them before they exploded.
It is not clear how these explosives left inside the garage storage unit and left them there, and why the technicians exploded when they moved. These are just a few of the questions authorities are trying to answer as they stitch together exactly what led to death. Joshua Kelly Ecklund, Victor Rems and William Osborne.
The investigation is led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s murder force, but also supports the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The federal agency deployed a national response team, a group of investigators that could help rebuild the scene, identify the points of explosion devices, and determine the cause of the explosion.
Officials stress that the investigation would likely take weeks or months.
“ATF is here to work with local partners to share resources that will help us determine the cause of this explosion,” said the ATF special agent responsible for Kenneth R. Cooper, Los Angeles Field division. “The pain of this loss is always felt, but we hope that our efforts will provide such a tragedy in the answer.”
Source link
