REDONDO BEACH, California – Two Marines from a California desert base were in custody after police found simulator explosives used in military training in their pickup truck at a Los Angeles-area shopping mall, authorities said Friday.
Three large stores were evacuated at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach after Marine Corps officials alerted police Thursday night, police said. Corps officials told them two active-duty Marines were driving a white pickup truck and had explosives.
Officers found the Marines at the mall and they acknowledged having the explosives, police said. A bomb squad from the Los Angeles County sheriff's office found 10 artillery simulator training devices, which are similar to police "flash-bang" grenades.
Thomas Bazer, 20, and Devin Gajewski, 24, were taken into the custody of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
The two are stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, about 180 miles northeast of the mall. It was not immediately known why they had the explosives and what they were doing in Redondo Beach.
Contact information for the two could not be found, and it was not clear whether the Marines had attorneys.
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