Los Angeles police and state authorities are investigating a deadly accident involving an LAPD officer who apparently drowned during a training exercise at a backyard pool in Huntington Beach, with officials looking into potential violations of safety protocols related to diving at a private residence rather than a department facility.
The officer who died, Thomas Denton, served in the department’s Metropolitan Division as a diving officer. Denton may have been in the pool testing out a device known as a closed-circuit rebreather, according to two law enforcement sources who asked not to be named in order to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Such devices allow a diver to stay underwater longer by filtering their exhaled breath to remove carbon dioxide. The technology is favored by the U.S. Navy SEALs because it allows their personnel to go undetected by preventing telltale air bubbles from surfacing…