Boston, Massachusetts – The death of a Massachusetts State Police recruit, Enrique Delgado-Garcia, has led to indictments against a supervisor and three instructors assigned to the State Police Academy’s defensive tactics unit, authorities announced Monday. Investigators say the 25-year-old recruit died after suffering serious head injuries during boxing-based training that they allege was unsafe and not properly stopped.
Delgado-Garcia died at a hospital on September 13, 2024, one day after he became unresponsive during a defensive tactics exercise in a boxing ring and suffered what officials initially described as a medical crisis, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
The four people indicted are Sgt. Jennifer Penton and Troopers Edwin Rodriguez, David Montanez, and Casey LaMonte, according to the investigator appointed by the Massachusetts attorney general, and as reported by multiple outlets.
Investigators said the defendants are charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury to a person participating in a training program involving physical exercise. Penton also faces a perjury charge tied to her grand jury testimony.
The men and women indicted are not expected to be arrested, and their arraignments will be scheduled at a later date.
David Meier, who was appointed to conduct an independent investigation, said that Delgado-Garcia first suffered a concussion during what he described as unauthorized and unsafe sparring sessions. Meier said that a day later, Delgado-Garcia sustained multiple blunt force injuries to the head and massive brain bleeding during an official boxing exercise after academy staff allegedly failed to stop the match.
The investigator said each of the indicted staff owed Delgado-Garcia a duty of care and alleged a series of reckless acts and omissions led to his death.
Field Lessons are offered strictly as general, industry-standard reminders drawn from common safety practices and typical policy considerations. They are not based on any inside knowledge of this specific incident, do not presume what actions were taken, and should not be interpreted as commentary on the decisions made at the scene.
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Define red line stop criteria for contact drills, especially any evolution involving head impacts, and empower any instructor to halt training immediately.
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Treat concussion signs as an automatic removal from training and medical evaluation, with a documented return to training protocol.
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Require authorized lesson plans for high-risk evolutions, including instructor-to-student ratios, protective equipment standards, and safety officer roles.
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Train instructors on medical cue recognition and on duty-of-care documentation, including how to articulate why a drill was stopped early.
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Conduct after action reviews on training injuries to identify policy gaps, supervision failures, and culture issues before they compound.
Dr. Travis Yates has pioneered a behavioral risk framework to help officers and leaders identify, assess, and articulate risk in rapidly evolving, uncertain situations. Find out more about the FOCUS Behavioral Risk Framework.
