Enrique Delgado-Garcia, 25, died on Sept. 13, 2024, following a boxing match at the State Police Academy in New Braintree, a town about 68 miles west of Boston. Garcia went unresponsive during the match, which had previously been halted due to injury concerns, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported.

A supervisor and three instructors with the Massachusetts State Police Academy have since been indicted in connection with the man’s death. On Feb. 9, authorities confirmed that Delgado-Garcia, a recruit, died following a defensive tactics training exercise.

Attorney David Meier has been appointed by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell to conduct an independent investigation into the incident. Following Delgado-Garcia’s death, state police suspended full-contact boxing training activities for new recruits.

Following a nine-month grand jury investigation, attorney Meier confirmed that the evidence revealed fault on the part of State Police Academy members. They allegedly committed a “series of wanton and reckless acts” during defensive tactics and physical confrontation training exercises.

In connection with Delgado-Garcia’s death, Sgt. Jennifer Penton, the head of the academy’s defensive tactics program, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious injury to a person participating in physical training. Meier said three troopers under her command — Edwin Rodriguez, David Montanez, and Casey LaMonte — are also facing the same charges.

In addition to those charges, Penton has also been charged with perjury for allegedly providing false testimony to a special statewide grand jury. During a press conference on Monday, Feb. 9, Meier said, “Each of these individuals owed a duty of care to Enrique Delgado-Garcia and to his fellow trainees.”

“Each of them interacted with Mr. Delgado-Garcia and his fellow trainees on a daily basis, and each of them committed a series of wanton and reckless acts and omissions that resulted in Enrique Delgado-Garcia’s death,” he added.

In a statement, Meier added that “wanton and reckless conduct resulted in Enrique Delgado Garcia suffering concussion-like symptoms as the result of unauthorized, unapproved, and unsupervised boxing-related sparring exercises that occurred during Academy training activities on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.”

After being injured during the training match, Delgado-Garcia was rushed to a hospital in Worcester. According to Meier, he sustained multiple blunt force injuries to the head and had a “massive brain bleeding.”

He blamed the State Police Academy for failing to stop the match, which resulted in the recruit’s death. As per Meier, Delgado-Garcia, due to the  “head injuries sustained during the recruit-on-recruit boxing match.”