Private funeral services were held Tuesday in Chino Hills for Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Victor Lemus, one of three veteran Arson Explosives Detail deputies killed in an explosion at a sheriff’s facility in East Los Angeles.
It was the last funeral to follow the tragedy that occurred July 18, one of the darkest days in the sheriff’s department’s long history.
At the family’s request, Tuesday’s service at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was a private event, with no accommodations for media or the general public.
The service was open, however, to outside law-enforcement agencies looking to pay respects, the sheriff’s department said.
Sheriff Robert Luna was among the numerous officials attending.
Lemus, part of a family with deep law-enforcement roots, joined the sheriff’s department in 2003. He was killed along with Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund and William Osborn in the 7:30 a.m. explosion on July 18 at the Biscailuz Regional Training Center, where a grenade thought to be inert detonated.
Funerals for Kelley-Eklund and Osborn took place last week. The sheriff’s department declined to release the fallen detectives’ ages.
“There are no words to express the pain and sorrow we feel,” Luna said the day of the blast. “These heroes represented the best of our department, exemplifying courage, integrity and selfless service. This is not only a heartbreaking loss for their families, but for all of us.”
According to the sheriff’s department, Lemus graduated from the Deputy Sheriff Academy as a part of Class 339 in 2003 before being assigned to Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where he ran on the Baker to Vegas running team.
He later transferred to Century Station, working as a senior training officer and detective while continuing to run on Baker to Vegas teams as an anchor “for some of the most difficult legs of the relay race.”
In 2017, he transferred to the Special Enforcement Bureau, where he was assigned as a K-9 handler prior to becoming an arson and explosive investigator last year.
The department said he received commendations “for his ability to mentor and train fellow deputies as well as notable arrests involving career criminals.”
Lemus is survived by his wife, sheriff’s Detective Nancy Lemus, and three daughters.
He also leaves three sisters who are members of the sheriff’s department — Sgt. Belen Lemus at Special Victims Bureau; Deputy Perla Lemus at Century Sheriff Station; and Custody Assistant Wendy Lemus of Population and Management Bureau.
Other survivors are his brothers Alfredo, Pedro, Juan and Efren; and a brother-in-law, Sgt. Robert Catalan, who is assigned to Carson Station.
Although a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-led investigation continues, it is believed it involved one of two grenades seized from a Santa Monica apartment complex storage bin a day before the deadly explosion.
Luna has said 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.
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.
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 Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).