WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Law enforcement officers across the region joined family members and friends Friday for the wake of Enrique Delgado-Garcia, who died after collapsing during a boxing match at a Massachusetts State Police training facility in New Braintree earlier this month.
Delgado-Garcia, 25, was taken to an area hospital on Sept. 12. He died the next day.
Scheduled to graduate with his class of fellow recruits early next month, Delgado-Garcia was officially sworn in as a state police trooper in his final hours of life.
“I can’t even begin to tell you what a wonderful, wonderful boy he was,” said former coworker Maria Alexandrov.
Delgado-Garcia’s wake began Friday afternoon at Mercadante Funeral Home in Worcester. His funeral will take place on Saturday.
Delgado-Garcia’s family arrived at the funeral home for their loved one’s wake in an SUV, escorted by state police troopers on motorcycles.
SKY7-HD flying over the funeral home near 4 p.m. spotted dozens of men and women training to be troopers standing at attention in the parking lot. Recruits and troopers soon began a walkthrough to pay their respects.
“He was so kind,” Alexandrov said of Delgado-Garcia.
Police said Delgado-Garcia was hit repeatedly in the boxing ring as he sparred with another trainee.
Though police said the incident was captured by a GoPro camera, they have not released the video.
As questions swirl around what happened in New Braintree, and after Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said his office would not investigate the case, Attorney General Andrea Campbell on Monday selected well-known defense attorney and former prosecutor David Meier to lead an independent investigation.
Campbell’s decision came a matter of days after Worcester state senators Michael Moore, Robyn Kennedy, and Peter Durant wrote a letter asking her to appoint an outside attorney.
Moore and Kennedy were at Delgado-Garcia’s wake on Friday and spoke to reporters.
“No disrespect to the state police, [but] with everything the last several years, I don’t think it would have benefited the state police or Enrique’s family to have them do it,” Moore said.
“Their child’s gone and they don’t have all the answers,” Kennedy said. “So, we’re going to continue to work with the state police and with the outside investigator and do everything we can in our power to make sure they have the answers and what needs to get fixed gets fixed.”
Humberto Cardounel of the National Policing Institute said “The transparency piece is critical in order to understand what actually occurred.”
Cardounel is an expert on police training whose own son is being trained to be an officer.
Cardounel told 7NEWS it is important for programs to follow state standards. And he said it is important to put safeguards in place, such as a person being on hand who monitors conditions.
“Even if you never had an injury, it serves you well to constantly assess what you’re doing,” he said.
A native of Puerto Rico, Delgado-Garcia grew up in Worcester and became a victim witness advocate at the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office after he graduated college.
DA Joseph Early Jr. mourned Delgado-Garcia’s loss and on Sept. 16 cited Delgado-Garcia’s prior employment as the reason for his office’s recusal.
“There’s no way this office can handle this,” he said. “Someone else will be handling this matter.”
In a statement earlier this week, Meier promised to investigate Delgado-Garcia’s death “professionally, thoroughly, and responsibly.”
On Tuesday, Campbell told 7NEWS “now the work begins” as investigators search for answers and as loved ones continue to grieve.
“He would have made a beautiful, fantastic state trooper,” Alexandrov said.
Delgado-Garcia’s autopsy results had not yet been released as of Friday afternoon.
While the independent investigation into Delgado-Garcia’s death begins, state police have also launched an internal investigation of their training practices and suspended boxing training exercises.
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