A funeral service is set for Tuesday for the first of three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives who died when a grenade thought to be inert exploded at a sheriff’s facility in East Los Angeles.
Det. William Osborn will be remembered during a service at Friends Church in Yorba Linda, according to the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Robert Luna is among those set to attend the service, which will likely include representatives of law enforcement agencies across the region.
Osborn was killed in the explosion that occurred around 7:30 a.m. on July 18 at the Biscailuz Regional Training Center. Sheriff’s detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund and Victor Lemus also died in the blast.
Although a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-led investigation continues, it is believed the blast involved one of two grenades that were seized from a Santa Monica apartment complex storage bin a day before the deadly explosion.
Osborn graduated from the sheriff’s academy in February 1992, according to the department.
He was initially assigned to Men’s Central Jail and then transferred to Pico Rivera Station in 1998 as a patrol deputy. He transferred to the Industry Station in 2001 and was promoted to the rank of detective, where he received commendations for his work recovering stolen vehicles.
After working as a detective for over a decade, handling over 100 cases each year, Osborn transferred to the Training Bureau as an Emergency Vehicle Operations Center Instructor in 2016. The department credited his love for investigations drawing him back to again being a detective.
Osborn joined Special Enforcement Bureau as an arson and explosive investigator in 2019, handling cases involving high-dollar loss fires in residential properties, as well as fires involving the loss of life.
He was described in an obituary supplied by the department as “one of tenured bomb technicians regularly relied upon when faced with a new challenge. He has broad range of experience and could be relied upon to provide relevant insight on broad range of subjects.”
Osborn is survived by his wife, Det. Shannon Rincon, as well as four sons and two daughters.
Funeral services for Kelley-Ecklund are to be held Thursday at Grace Baptist Church, 22833 Copper Hill Drive in Santa Clarita. The third funeral, for Lemus, is scheduled for Aug. 12 at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, 4201 Eucalyptus Ave. in Chino.
Sheriff’s Arson Explosives Detail investigators assisted Santa Monica police on July 17 to retrieve a pair of grenades that were found in an apartment building storage unit near Bay Street and Lincoln Boulevard, Luna said previously. The devices were examined, X-rayed and believed to be inert, but sheriff’s officials retrieved the grenades and took them to the Biscailuz facility in the 1000 block of North Eastern Avenue “to be destroyed and rendered safe.”
It remains unclear what caused the single grenade to detonate, but Luna said the investigation determined that only one device exploded.
The whereabouts of the second grenade remain unknown. Luna said the department has begun an internal investigation into the handling of the situation.
After the explosion, investigators returned to the Santa Monica apartment building to conduct a more thorough search, and at least two search warrants were executed in Marina del Rey, where authorities were seen searching a boat and a storage facility.
No details of that investigation have been released.
Anyone with information on either of the two devices was asked to call 1-888-ATF-TIPS (8477), or the LASD Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).