A large law enforcement presence turned out in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Saturday to honor a state police recruit who died after becoming unresponsive during a training exercise earlier this month.
Enrique Delgado-Garcia died at a hospital on Sept. 13, a day after suffering a “medical crisis” at the police academy in New Braintree, authorities have said. The 25-year-old state police recruit was pinned as a trooper during his final hours. At his private funeral Saturday in Worcester, Delgado-Garcia received full state police honors.
Police carried Delgado-Garcia's casket, which was draped in an American flag, from a funeral home as part of that service. A bagpiper played “Going Home,” and flags around the state were ordered lowered to half-staff by Gov. Maura Healey.
Delgado-Garcia has been remembered as a man who wanted to help others.
“He wanted to do good. He wanted to protect and serve with love and kindness. He wanted to make a difference," said Mary Hart and Caroline Root, friends from Worcester.
"Enrique was a joy and he was the best hugger," Hart added.
Loved ones shared remorse for the bright future that was taken from Delgado-Garcia all too soon.
"Distraught, disbelief, I have a lot of questions that need to be answered but they're not going to be answered today. I just hope that everything gets resolved in a timely manner. This is one of the worst things that could happen to a young individual, just trying to make a difference and change the stigma of the police," said Enrique's cousin Obed Canario-Garcia. "I want him to be remembered as a great person, an athlete, he was everything that I am but 100 times better. He was my little brother in a sense, was also kind of like my son. I'm sorry this is just a lot..."
"We shared everything together, video games, dreams, and then to see it cut short at just 25 years old is too much." he added.
There are a lot of questions and calls for accountability following this tragedy, including from Delgado-Garcia's mother, Sandra Garcia, who spoke to NBC10 Boston ahead of this weekend's services.
She also said her son always wanted to dedicate himself to helping others. When he told her that he was interested in law enforcement, she said she worried for his safety but, as a family, they supported his dream.
The last time Garcia spoke to her son, she caught him as he was leaving home at dawn for the State Police Academy — just weeks away from graduating.
The next time she saw him was in the hospital.
Garcia says she was told that Delgado-Garcia was hit in the head and lost consciousness, telling NBC10 Boston and Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra in Spanish that all of her son's teeth were broken and that he had bruises on his body. Her heart tells her there was "great negligence" involved.
With an independent investigator now taking on the case, Garcia says she wants transparency and to know what happened, because with so much damage done, she believes it was something strange.
She also believes the department should change its training: "That training is too brutal and it doesn’t have to lead to a case where an agent has to die, because I think that the police don’t go out to box, rather to try to help the community. It’s fine if a moment presents itself where they have to defend themselves, but they don’t need to implement so much aggression to those young men that it leads to the death of one of their own.”
Delgado-Garcia's stepfather, Jose Perez, says he will remember the man as a warrior, who fought until his final day for his values and his dream.
"I think my heart will always, until the last day of my life, will think of this young man that, at his young age, he could do what many who have many more years have not been able to achieve," Perez said.
"I just hope that they hold somebody accountable for this, because we could barely keep it together in there," Howard said Friday.
Calls for accountability have spread beyond Delgado-Garcia's friends and family. The Latino Law Enforcement Group of Boston and Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston have both issued public statements calling for transparency about the investigation into Delgado-Garcia's death.
The state must “immediately suspend anyone potentially involved and responsible for the fatal boxing match to ensure the safety and well-being of the remaining cadets in the Massachusetts State Police Academy,” in addition to making other safety and accountability improvements, Lawyers for Civil Rights said in its statement.
Massachusetts State Police has said it has suspended full-contact boxing training activities among recruits in the wake of what happened, and the state attorney general has named attorney David Meier to lead an outside investigation into what Delgado-Garcia's death.
Delgado-Garcia's class will graduate at the DCU Center in Worcester on Oct. 9.
Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
Delgado-Garcia was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, and moved to Worcester at a young age, according to an obituary on the website of the Mercadante Funeral Home & Chapel in Worcester. He earned an undergraduate degree from Westfield State University in Massachusetts before starting his career as a victim's advocate in the Worcester district attorney's office, the obituary said.
“Enrique was an exceptional young man who devoted himself to the service of others. He had always dreamed of becoming a State Trooper and to be someone big who made a difference in the lives of the people in his community,” the obituary said.
