New Massachusetts State Police troopers remember Enrique Delgado-Garcia at bittersweet ceremony

The ceremony to graduate the 185 members of the 90th Massachusetts State Police Recruit Training Troop was bittersweet, replete with reminders to the loss of Enrique Delgado-Garcia, a member of the class who died in a horrific way at the academy.

“Today we celebrate the accomplishments of the 185 troopers of the 90th recruit troop,” the new MSP leader, Col. Geoffrey Noble, said at the conclusion of the nearly three-hour graduation ceremony Wednesday. “I also want to acknowledge that this special day comes in the wake of tragedy, immense tragedy. Ninetieth RTT, I offer you my deepest condolences for the loss of your brother, Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia.

“In reading about this extraordinary young man, it is clear to me that Trooper Delgado-Garcia had a vocation, a vocation to serve. To serve others as a member of law enforcement,” Noble continued in his first major outing as the new leader. “We know he was encouraged to stay at the DA’s office and continue to support victims of crime, but like so many of you, he could not ignore the call to service, the call in his heart. The call to join the Massachusetts State Police.”

He spoke as the assembled graduates stood at parade rest in Worcester’s DCU Center. Each one had within the previous hour been pinned with the MSP badge, whose design dates back to 1921 but was on this day bound with a ceremonial black band to honor Delgado-Garcia. What would have been his badge number adorns the crest of the class.

Gov. Maura Healey said that the day was indeed a celebration of the “hard work and perseverance” the graduates had to get to be troopers, but a celebration that carried “a great weight.”

“Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia answered the call. He took the assignment,” she said. “Trooper Delgado-Garcia was and is a special person, determined to not only uphold the law, but uplift his community. To members of Enrique’s family, friends, and the Worcester community who are here today and watching, we continue to grieve with you and to pray with you.”

Delgado-Garcia, 25, of Worcester, was killed last month after suffering a “medical crisis,” the MSP said, in a boxing “training exercise” at the academy. The ACLU in a statement described his injuries as “incredibly severe” and included “damage to his brain, a broken neck, and missing teeth.”

The ceremony featured a video of Delgado-Garcia himself speaking of his great excitement at becoming a trooper.

“Prior to the Academy I worked at the Worcester DA’s office as a victim/witness advocate. The reason I stayed is because I wanted to help people; I wanted to be there for them on their worst days and make that bad day a little bit better,” he said in the video where he was seated in front of a blow-up of the MSP logo and sporting his recruit uniform. “The reason I stay is that I want to help people and all my fellow hispanics can do the same — be officers and help make the world a better place.”

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell thanked Delgado-Garcia’s family and friends for their patience as the investigation, which was notably delayed after the Worcester DA’s office recused itself, into his death continues. She further called on the new troopers to hold their heads high and to “honor Enrique’s memory in the best way possible by being the very best troopers you can be.”

“As I waited to go into the funeral home to extend my condolences to Enrique’s family and friends and former colleagues in Worcester, I saw all of you, graduates, walking in formation, holding your heads high and tears rolling down many of your faces,” she said.

“While this may not be the media narrative, I know you, too, share in the grief and mourning that Enrique’s family is sharing. I know that you also feel the very same pain that his mother, his sisters, his father and stepfather and relatives are experiencing. And it’s ok to not be ok, to cry and share that grief. In vulnerability there is absolutely healing and, I would add, tremendous strength,” she continued.