A former Massachusetts State Police trainee, and a friend of fallen recruit Enrique Delgado-Garcia, is detailing his experience with bullying and harassment at the academy.
BRAINTREE, Mass. (WWLP) – A former Massachusetts State Police trainee, and a friend of fallen recruit Enrique Delgado-Garcia, is detailing his experience with bullying and harassment at the academy.
Enrique Delgado-Garcia died at a hospital on Friday, one day after getting hurt during a boxing exercise at the state police academy. Former trainee Giovani Jn-Baptiste said the two trained together at the Braintree academy.
Jn-Baptiste was there and he said he was the target of racial bullying. He says he was told to… “go back to Haiti”, deprived of meals, and even forced to stay up at night, counting bricks in a wall, or coloring sweatpants with a marker.
“One trooper assured me that I would not graduate, he said ‘I’m not going to lie to you. You don’t deserve to be here. You will never wear that uniform,” said Jn-Baptiste
Jn-Baptiste says his time ended at the academy last month when he failed a test, and it was Delgado-Garcia who drove him home. The trainee says he has two documented complaints on file at the academy.
In a statement, the Massachusetts State Police said they do not tolerate any form of hazing and are taking these allegations very seriously, and that quote, “The individual with whom you spoke was dismissed from the 90th Recruit Training Troop last month and is not permitted to reapply to the MSP. Privacy laws prevent the Department from commenting further on any details of the trainee’s dismissal, however, the Department vehemently denies the allegations.”
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.