FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - In 2024, a recruit died in a boxing ring during training at the Massachusetts State Police Academy. The people who will one day protect your family are trained there — now, that training is being overhauled.

Enrique Delgado Garcia came to this academy to become a trooper. He never got the chance. Now, the colonel is putting the brakes on the next trooper class until key safety changes are in place at the academy in New Braintree.

Recruit Enrique Delgado Garcia died in 2024 — a day after a training exercise in the boxing ring. Four troopers now face charges, the independent review that followed found more than 100 problems: recruits undergoing stressful drills with no clear purpose, high leadership turnover, and outdated facilities.

One of the biggest changes is immediate, a permanent ban on boxing and any drills involving strikes to the head. The department is also hiring four civilians to help oversee training and adding mental health and wellness support for recruits.

“This review is going to be an important foundation. And it’s going to provide a road map for how we train future troopers,” said Colonel Geoffrey Nobel of the Massachusetts State Police.

The next trooper class, originally set for June, is on hold until at least a third of the recommendations are in place. The Colonel said he’ll revisit that timeline this late summer. A similar review in 2006 found the same problems at this academy — and little changed.

This time, the colonel has committed to all 103 recommendations. For the recruits who come after Enrique Delgado Garcia, and for the communities they will serve, the question now is whether that promise holds.

The colonel said an independent advisory team will also hold the department accountable on a five-year improvement plan.

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