Massachusetts
GoFundMe to support Mass. State Police trooper's family blows past $15k goal
A GoFundMe set up for the family of a Massachusetts State Police trooper who died last week has blown past its goal.
The campaign for Enrique Delgado-Garcia’s family originally had a goal of raising $15,000. As of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, it’s received $26,193.
The family received one donation of $1,000, followed by four $500 donations, three $200 donations and 10 $100 donations.
“We appreciate everyone’s prayers!” organizer and Delgado-Garcia’s mother Sandra Garcia wrote. “Humbled and thankful for everyone’s concerns, donations, and contributions as we mourn the unexpected loss of our dearest and beloved son, brother, cousin, and friend, Enrique! May God bless all who have shown care, concern, and support in any way during this time of irreparable loss!”
Delgado-Garcia, 25, of Worcester, died after becoming unresponsive during a defensive tactics training exercise at the Massachusetts State Police Academy in New Braintree, state police said previously.
“We know it was in a boxing ring, it was videotaped,” Worcester County District Attorney and Delgado-Garcia’s former employer Joseph Early Jr. told reporters on Monday.
Delgado-Garcia, part of the 90th Recruit Training Troop, was set to graduate on Oct. 9 at the DCU Center, state police said. A police department commissioner delivered the trainee’s oath of office hours before Delgado-Garcia died.
On Saturday night, Delgado-Garcia’s body was moved from the hospital to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Westfield, state police said. He was accompanied by a procession.
“He was a dedicated victim witness advocate who joined our office, and he was with us for about a year and a half before he left our office to fulfill his lifelong dream of joining the Massachusetts State Police,” Early said Monday.
Donors to the GoFundMe page shared their condolences to the family. One commenter said she knew Delgado-Garcia through her daughter when the two attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
“He came and volunteered to be Santa at the tutoring program I ran at a homeless shelter in New Bedford,” she wrote. “He was such a genuine soul. I am so sorry that this happened to him. It is so wrong. Please take solace in knowing that you raised a wonderful human being who was taken from us way too soon.”
Another commenter who said she was a former police officer wrote that she “cannot comprehend any sort of ‘training exercise’ that would put a police recruit at risk of serious injury or death.”
While Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to Early’s office continue to investigate Delgado-Garcia’s death, Early said his office will not have a role in the investigation due to a conflict of interest. He added that it would not be appropriate for another district attorney’s office to handle the matter.
On Tuesday, State Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell said she was “in conversation” with Early’s office about who will have jurisdiction over the investigation. She told GBH Boston that “it was possible her office could take on the investigation, or that it could be assigned to another county district attorney elsewhere in the state.”
She said she hoped there is a decision soon, but it is complicated since her office and county prosecutors all have State Police personnel assigned to them.
Campbell told the station that she was “talking to everyone.”
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts police officer’s ‘extraordinary courage’ in federal spotlight after heroic rescue
A Massachusetts police officer’s “extraordinary courage” has earned federal recognition two months after he stepped into action and saved a woman’s life on the train tracks.
FBI Director Kash Patel has sent a certificate of appreciation to Abington Police Sgt. Stephen Marquardt for the veteran officer’s efforts in preventing the distraught woman from being fatally struck by an oncoming train.
FBI Boston’s Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks visited the department on the South Shore this week, presenting Marquardt with the certificate two months after the sergeant’s life-saving action.
“Back in March, Sgt. Marquardt demonstrated extraordinary courage when he stepped onto the railroad tracks,” FBI Boston stated in a social media post, “as a train was approaching, to rescue a woman having a mental health crisis.
“FBI Boston thanks him for his unwavering commitment to public service,” the post added.
The Abington Police Department responded to the gesture, stating that it “extends its appreciation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for recognizing Sgt. Marquardt’s bravery and dedication to public service.”
The recognition comes amid a difficult time in the Massachusetts law enforcement community, including the death of Massachusetts state trooper Kevin Trainor, who was struck and killed by a wrong-way driver on Route 1 in Lynnfield on May 6.
Marquardt has received heavy applause since responding to and saving the woman in crisis on March 6. On April 19, the long-time veteran of the Abington PD threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
Weeks after his response, Abington Police Chief John Bonney presented Marquardt with a “Medal of Valor,” awarded to employees with a “total disregard for their personal safety to save the life of another.”
Body-worn camera footage that Bonney shared with the public in the days after the response went viral. In the clip, Marquardt is heard trying to persuade the woman to get off the tracks, but she initially resisted, as an oncoming train’s headlight comes into view.
“Come on. We are on the train tracks. I don’t want to get killed,” the sergeant is heard saying. “Come on, come on. … Please. … We are going to get run over if we stay here.”
Moments later, just after 6:15 the morning of March 6, Marquardt got the woman off the tracks. In just mere seconds, the train roars past.
“The willingness of police officers to sacrifice their own safety for complete strangers leaves me in awe every time I see it,” the police chief said at an Abington Select Board meeting on March 30. “Sgt. Marquardt was going to save this woman’s life or die trying, and the nobility in that is chilling. He saved both of their lives in that moment.”
Massachusetts
Public asked to attend funeral services for Massachusetts World War II veteran with no known family
An effort is underway in Massachusetts to give a World War II veteran the goodbye he deserves.
John Bernard Arnold III, an East Bridgewater man who served in the U.S. Navy, died on May 6 at 98 years old.
“This veteran passed away with no known family to attend his services,” the town said. “Attendees, pallbearers, and procession participants are all needed.”
Terrence O’Keeffe, who is the veterans’ service officer for Hanson and Hanover, posted to Facebook on Thursday that he’s looking for people to show up for Arnold in Hanson on Monday.
“I am enlisting your help to send this Veteran off the way he should,” O’Keeffe wrote.
His post has been shared hundreds of times, and he has since updated it to say “the response to this has been more than amazing.”
“This is exactly how our community (not just the Veterans) should come together,” O’Keeffe said. “It’s shaping up to be a fitting send off.”
Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday at Saint Joseph the Worker Church on Maquan Street in Hanson. A funeral Mass will follow at 11 a.m. Arnold will be laid to rest after at Cedar Knoll Cemetery in Taunton.
One person on Facebook who said she has been a caretaker for Arnold at a veteran home in East Bridgewater commented that he always made everyone’s day “bright and happy.”
“He sadly has no family and was the sweetest littlest 98 year old man I ever had the pleasure to know,” she said.
An obituary for Arnold says he had two sisters who died before him. He went to high school in Newport, Rhode Island and attended Rhode Island State University for two years. He also had lived in Pembroke, Massachusetts.
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