The explosion that killed three Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on Friday morning wasn’t the first time a deputy was killed while training.
Sheriff Robert Luna said the blast at the Biscailuz Training Center in East Los Angeles marked the deadliest day in department history since 1857.
But the most recent death at a training facility occurred last year, when a deputy died from burns suffered in a fire that erupted in a shooting range.
Most of the roughly 150 deputies who have died in the line of duty were killed under chaotic circumstances — shot or stabbed by suspects, struck by friendly fire, felled by heart attacks on the job and killed in car, motorcycle and plane crashes.
Incidents like Friday’s explosion, which occurred in the training center’s parking lot, are bound to bring more scrutiny and potential legal liability.
The three deputies who died — said to be department veterans from a specialized unit — have not been publicly identified. Luna told reporters at a mid-day news conference it could take months to get to the bottom of what happened.
The family of the deputy who died last year is now suing the Sheriff’s Department, alleging negligence from higher-ups created a dangerous environment. State regulators have fined the county more than $300,000 for alleged safety violations at the shooting range.
The deputies killed Friday at Biscailuz Center were transporting an explosive device collected a day earlier in Santa Monica when it blew up in a parking lot, a law enforcement source who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly told The Times.
Luna said the deputies were assigned to the department’s Arson-Explosives Detail. He described them as “fantastic experts” who had handled many dangerous call-outs to collect ordnance.
The last L.A. County sheriff’s deputy to die in the line of duty was Alfredo Flores, who succumbed in April 2024 to burns suffered from the Oct. 10, 2023 fire at a shooting range at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic.
Flores, a 22-year deputy and father of four, was doing a regular firearms re-certification when the trailer-style range burst into flames, according to a civil complaint his family has filed against the county.
In a complaint of his own, the range master on duty that day, Mark Thorn, said he and Flores were trapped inside by a jammed door. He escaped, but not before suffering “catastrophic” burns, the complaint said.
The county has yet to respond to either suit.
Flores’ attorney claims the Sheriff’s Department should have known the range was in danger of catching fire. Gunpowder, lead and other combustible material had built up inside the structure, the lawyers wrote. They cited a citation from state workplace regulators, who wrote that “accumulated propellant” inside the shooting range posed a fire risk.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health in 2024 fined the Sheriff’s Department more than $300,000 for the alleged violations. Sheriff’s officials have appealed the citation.
After the deadly fire, the Sheriff’s Department shut down its range trailers, which it had used since the 1980s as an affordable alternative to permanent firing ranges.
A reserve deputy was killed in a training exercise in 1967. Michael Wigderson was trying to disarm an instructor at a sheriff’s facility in East Los Angeles when the instructor’s gun discharged, according to the bulletin published by the Sheriff’s Department museum. The gun should not have been loaded.
Wigderson died from a gunshot to his stomach and a second deputy was struck in the arm, the bulletin said.
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
