A former classmate of Enrique Delgado-Garcia is speaking out, even as authorities continue to search for an outside agency unbiased enough to oversee the investigation into the Massachusetts State Police recruit's death.
Giovanni Jn Baptiste told the NBC10 Boston Investigators he lasted just 18 weeks in the Massachusetts State Police Academy before he was kicked out. He’s now questioning how a supervised training could lead to his friend and former classmate Delgado-Garcia’s death.
Delgado-Garcia, 25, died at a hospital on Friday, a day after becoming unresponsive during a training exercise at the Massachusetts State Police Academy in New Braintree, according to state police. A state police spokesman said the academy's on-site medical team responded immediately after Delgado-Garcia became unresponsive. They determined he required urgent medical care and took him to the hospital, where he died. Authorities have said there is video of the incident, which happened in a boxing ring.
Jn Baptiste said he participated in a boxing exercise while at the academy and can’t understand how Delgado-Garcia ended up with such serious injuries, like missing teeth, skull damage and a fractured neck.
He said as an army reservist who went through basic training, Jn Baptiste knew 16 hour days at the academy would be grueling, but he alleges he was bullied, told on multiple occasions to go back to Haiti and deprived of food and sleep.
“One trooper, he assured me, he told me, 'You’re not going to graduate. I’m not going to lie to you. I will never let you graduate that place. You don’t deserve to be here. You will never wear that uniform,'" Jn Baptiste told NBC10 Boston.
“Physically, I was prepared. Mentally, I was prepared for training, but not mental abuse... Every day, bullying me. It’s the first time I saw bullying, like what is really bullying... What is really really, hard for me is to confirm that Delgado is dead from the Academy... I want to know what happened to him.”
Massachusetts State Police released a statement saying in part that they do “not tolerate any form of hazing, discrimination, or misconduct, and (we) thoroughly investigate any allegation of such behavior ... Privacy laws prevent the Department from commenting further on any details of the trainee’s dismissal, however, the Department vehemently denies the allegations.”
Who will investigate Enrique Delgado-Garcia's death?
Meanwhile, we're still waiting to learn which agency or entity will investigate Delgado-Garcia's death.
Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Monday that he cannot oversee the investigation because it would be a conflict since Delgado-Garcia previously worked in his office as a victim witness advocate. But he said state police detectives assigned to his office are continuing to investigate the case until it is assigned to another agency.
"Because of this close relationship, someone else will be handling this matter," Early said. "There's no way this office can handle this."
That means an outside entity will need to investigate, but that is complicated by the fact that all of the other district attorneys' offices in the state and even Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office has state police detectives assigned to them.
"We have to figure some things out and we have to figure them out rather quickly," Campbell said Tuesday. "I'm in conversation with DA Early and other agencies to talk about who is best positioned to take on this investigation. We all agree he has a conflict of interest. He knows the family, it's too deep."
"We'll have a decision point very soon to figure out who is best to lead this investigation," she added. "I get the sense of urgency here for the family. They have a lot of questions. They need a point of contact to go to and someone to navigate this investigation on their behalf."
Making it even more difficult, Campbell said, is that there's a civil case as well, and as the attorney general she represents state agencies like the state police.
"So it's a dual role here I have to navigate very carefully," she said. "We'll get to a place where the family has answers and an appropriate authority to investigate for them."
'It just doesn't seem right'
Delgado-Garcia's family is demanding answers in the wake of his death, saying they don't understand how a training exercise could have left him with fatal injuries, including severe brain trauma. His mother told NBC10 Boston and Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra that he was hit and injured.
The police training in question can cover a range of physical encounters to defend against tackles, punches and other attacks. A state police spokesman did not specify the type of exercise Delgado-Garcia took part in.
“I don’t understand why it was so rough if it was just training," Sandra Garcia said in Spanish. “I want them to explain it to me, that the state explains to me what happened with my son. … Why did he hit him so hard that it killed him, that it destroyed his brain and broke all of my son’s teeth and he had a neck fracture too, my son.”
Kelly Ochoa, a Mattapoisett teacher who knew Delgado-Garcia from volunteer work they both did at a homeless shelter in New Bedford, was horrified to learn of his death and was eager for the investigation to share what happened.
"Nobody right now, apparently, knows exactly what happened," she said. "But it just doesn't seem right. You don't just die in a boxing ring. Something went wrong. I don't know."
"I hope that whatever agency (investigates this) that they are unbiased and can get to the bottom of what actually really happened, and maybe if someone needs to be held accountable, they'll be held accountable, because there's no reason for him to have passed on from this. This just doesn't make sense."
Gov. Healey urges people not to jump to conclusions
Gov. Maura Healey made her first public remarks about the tragedy on Tuesday, calling Delgado-Garcia's death "absolutely so heartbreaking and sad," while also urging people not to jump to conclusions.
"My heart goes out to Enrique's family," the governor said. "Obviously, as with any death, there will be an investigation... We certainly want to understand exactly what happened and be very clear in communicating with Enrique's family about that."
"As governor, I'm committed to making sure we have a fully understanding of what happened and will clearly communicate with the public on that," she added.
Healey said she did not want to comment on the family's remarks until the investigation is complete and does not see any need to halt training exercises as a result of Delgado-Garcia's death.
"I think people need to not jump to conclusions," Healey said. "I think that's important, until we know the facts. Right now that class, actually, they're about to wrap up training. In fact, their graduation ceremony is in just a few weeks. But we're going to make sure the matter is thoroughly reviewed and we understand exactly what happened. Protecting the men and women who are both training and serving us out there is certainly first and foremost."
