WORCESTER, Mass. — A retired state police detective lieutenant who spoke with Spectrum News 1 said with the safeties and protocols in place for the academy, it sounds like something went wrong and he’s assuming what led to the death of Enrique Delgado-Garcia was an unintentional, tragic mistake.

“What happened to this trainee absolutely should not happen," James Duggan said. "It’s just such a sad story.” 

What You Need To Know

  • Enrique Delgado-Garcia, 25, was seriously injured during a defensive tactics training exercise at the Massachusetts State Police Academy and died last week

  • The incident happened at the Massachusetts State Police Academy in New Braintree

  • Worcester DA Joseph Early said his office won't be leading the investigation into the death of a state police recruit during a training exercise last week

Duggan retired from the Mass. State Police in 2018 following a 25-year career with the agency.

Duggan said the 25-week academy is grueling for recruits, but said the stress training methods are common among state police and highway patrol agencies in the U.S.

“It’s grueling by design," Duggan said. "It's intended to really exert fairly constant stress on the trainees to test and develop their mental fortitude.”

Duggan said the boxing and combat training portions stem from finding many new troopers had never been in a physical altercation, which can be a detriment when they’re out on the road alone.

“New troopers most often are working the midnight shift. So, backup can be far away. They're working alone," Duggan said. "And the job doesn't want them to experience a physical altercation for the first time with a handgun strapped to their hip out in the breakdown lane at 2 a.m.”

As trainees are under constant stress and pressure, Duggan said it’s a credit to the academy staff major injuries aren’t common during some dangerous exercises.

But he said it’s important to make sure what happened to Delgado-Garcia is investigated and never happens again.

“They normally do a great job. And I don't say that to minimize what happened here, because this is really sad," Duggan said. "It's tragic, it's extremely unfortunate and it's going to affect so many people at so many levels; but this is not common. And at the same time, got to do everything in our power to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Worcester DA Joseph Early said his office won't be leading the investigation because Delgado-Garcia previously worked with the DA's office.