Mass. State Police Weigh Jujitsu Training After Cadet’s Boxing Death

The Massachusetts State Police might be adding jujitsu to its cadet training, replacing boxing exercises, which were dropped following a tragic incident.

Col. Geoffrey Noble, who leads the agency, told State House News Service that a review about adding jujitsu to the academy is in its final stages, WPRI-TV reports. Law enforcement agencies around the country are moving to jujitsu as a more controlled defensive technique, says state Rep. Kip Diggs, who's also a former pro boxer.

Boxing was dropped from the state police academy's training curriculum in 2024 after Enrique Delgado-Garcia, a cadet, died during a boxing training exercise in September of that year. Delgado-Garcia was knocked unconscious during the session and died from blunt force injuries and massive brain bleeding. 

An academy supervisor and three instructors were charged in the incident. Investigators found that the staff showed "wanton and reckless conduct" in conducting the "unauthorized, unapproved, and unsupervised" training.