WORCESTER, Mass. - Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early said his office will not be leading the investigation into the death of Enrique Delgado Garcia, a Massachusetts State Police recruit who died after sustaining critical injuries during a training exercise last week.

The incident happened at the Massachusetts State Police Academy in New Braintree, which would typically fall under his office’s jurisdiction. But Delgado Garcia used to work there, and Early is seeking an agency without a stake in the outcome of the investigation.

“I did talk to several people about taking over this matter on Friday, I’m not going to get into who they are,” Early told reporters on Monday. “There’s no way this office could handle this. Everyone loved Enrique.”

Delgado Garcia worked as a victim witness advocate within the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office for a year and a half, leaving in April to fulfill what Early described as a lifelong dream of becoming a state trooper.

At a Monday news conference with Delgado Garcia’s family by his side, Early said he was an ambitious, dedicated employee during his time there.

“Enrique constantly worked to make life better for others,” Early said. “Whether it was the victims he was advocating for or his fellow coworkers, he always did so with one of the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen.”

Family members by Early’s side included Delgado Garcia’s mother Sandra, still visibly shaken two days after seeing her son’s body carried away to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.

While an official cause or manner of death has yet to be released, an autopsy has been conducted. Delgado Garcia’s family has said he suffered a broken neck, missing teeth and severe head trauma. The incident occurred during a boxing training exercise.

Early said when Delgado Garcia left his office in April to become a state trooper, he was sad to lose such a hard worker. He had hoped one day, he’d come back to work for him as a detective.

“I remember many evenings after 6 p.m., I’d be walking out of my office and Enrique would still be at the front, either talking on the phone to a victim or the victim’s family,” Early said. “We tried to get him to go home, I’m thinking ‘What are you doing?’ He said ‘No, Mr. Early, I’ll be leaving soon, I’ve got a few things I still need to do.”

For now, state police detectives with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office initially assigned to the case will continue to work it until another agency takes over. While the agency is still to be determined, Early said it won’t be another district attorney’s office.

Fred Taylor, President of the Worcester NAACP, hopes whoever does end up leading the investigation comes away with some answers for Delgado Garcia’s family.

“Look into their practices on what they do regarding training, because if that's what happened, if this happened during a training exercise, obviously something went wrong,” Taylor said. “And I really don't believe that it should get to that point to where someone should have to die in the middle of training.”