The newest class of Massachusetts State Police troopers graduated on Wednesday.
It's a bittersweet day, as Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia would have graduated with the class.
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This day was supposed to be a celebration of Delgado-Garcia achieving his dream of becoming a state trooper, but now, his family and friends are mourning his death from injuries he suffered during a training exercise last month at the Massachusetts State Police Academy in New Braintree.
Delgado-Garcia was pinned as a trooper during his final hours.
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"I was devastated. It hit me really hard," said Micah Kibler, a close friend of Delgado-Garcia. "I talked to him the weekend before he passed. Everything was good with him. His spirits were high, so it really hurt."
He joined several family members and friends in a demonstration demanding answers outside of Worcester's DCU Center, where the graduation took place Wednesday.
"I just want justice for Enrique," said Kibler. "He just wanted to help people, now he's not here. It's just not right."
"Enrique was a role model to everyone that I knew and everyone that he knew," said Luis Canario, Delgado-Garcia's cousin. "To see him achieving his dreams and for something like this to happen, it's just saddening, and we want answers."
During the graduation ceremony, a moment of silence was observed for Delgado-Garcia, followed by a clip from an interview he gave while at the academy.
"The reason I stayed is I wanted to help people," Delgado-Garcia said in the video. "I wanted to be there for them on their worst days to help make their bad day a little bit better."
He reiterated the message in Spanish and encouraged other Hispanic people to become officers to help make the world a better place.
Detective Lieutenant Jeffrey Johnson noted the 90th Recruit Training Troop chose to include Delgado-Garcia's troop number on the banner they designed to represent them.
After administering the Oath of Office, Gov. Maura Healey addressed the loss in her remarks.
"Trooper Delgado-Garcia was and is a special person, determined to not only uphold the law, but to uplift his community," Healey said. "To members of Enrique's family, friends and the Worcester community, we continue to grieve with you and to pray with you. To the fellow troopers who lived and trained alongside Enrique, we honor your resilience and perseverance."
The governor encouraged them to honor Delgado-Garcia's memory by being the very best troopers that they can be.
"I continue to pray for his family and will do my part to support them, understanding that you undergo investigations they can take time, so I appreciate his family and their patience," Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said at the ceremony.
Campbell recently named attorney David Meier as the leader of an independent investigation into Delgado-Garcia's death. Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr., for whom Delgado-Garcia previously worked, had called for an outside investigation.
"May today not only be about mourning. Let us also collectively celebrate your resilience and the beautiful life of Enrique," said Campbell "Let his life remind us that life is fleeting and that we only get one. So get to it. Get to living life fully."
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Colonel Geoffrey Noble, the recently sworn-in superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, also offered his condolences to the new troopers.
"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," said Noble. "We know that he was encouraged to stay at the DA's office and continue to support victims of crime, but like many of you, he could not ignore the call to service, the call in his heart, the call to join the MSP. Today and always, we remember and honor him."
As people exited the graduation ceremony, demonstrators held up signs with pictures of Delgado-Garcia and chanted, "We want justice."
"We want answers and not to just let it go and in a few years, just close the case and nothing happens. We want the perpetrator to give us answers. We want to know what happened," said Jennifer Verjez, a friend of Delgado-Garcia. "He should have been safe. He should have been in a place where he finished his training and should have been here."
