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A week after Enrique Delgado-Garcia was fatally injured at the Massachusetts State Police Academy, there is still an open question of who will investigate. State police say the 25-year-old recruit was hospitalized last Thursday after being injured during a defensive tactics training exercise at the New Braintree facility. He died the following day. The Worcester County District Attorney’s Office is looking for an outside agency to investigate the death of Delgado-Garcia, who previously worked for the office as a victim witness advocate. Gov. Maura Healey was asked Thursday about the process. “I feel terrible for Enrique and his family. What a tragic situation. As with any death, the DA’s office is going to be investigating,” the governor said. “The DA has to determine who is best positioned to investigate that, but that needs to happen, it need to happen quickly, so most importantly, the family has answers.” Todd McGhee, a security analyst and former Massachusetts State Police instructor, says that incidents occurring at the state police academy are typically subject to internal affairs investigations. He said he is not aware of any other agency providing independent oversight of the state police. “I have oversight,” Healey said Thursday. “I take that charge really seriously, because I want to make sure that for the public’s sake, we’re giving the very best to law enforcement, in terms of support, best training, best instruction, and it also goes back to why we’ve got to have this particular incident investigated, with answers, as quickly as possible.” McGhee said he would expect federal authorities to take part in an investigation into Delgado-Garcia’s death. “I’m envisioning that there might be involvement with the Department of Justice, perhaps the FBI may become the lead investigative agency, and that would not surprise me,” he said. “That seems to be the appropriate structure.” Jessie Rossman, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, also expects federal involvement. “In the short term, this suggests that federal authorities may need to assume control of any investigation into these events,” she told NBC10 Boston Wednesday. “But in the long term, this also raises the broader question about why there is not a routine way to investigate potential MSP misconduct within the commonwealth.” More on Enrique Delgado-Garcia 15 hours ago Supporters of Read, Birchmore and Delgado-Garcia call for accountability outside Mass. State House Enrique Delgado-Garcia Sep 18 Who will investigate the death of Enrique Delgado-Garcia? Enrique Delgado-Garcia Sep 17 ‘It was really hurtful': Former MSP trainee who knew dead recruit details racist, bullying allegations at academy

A meeting Thursday in Canton, Massachusetts, became heated as participants discussed how to move forward with an audit of the town’s police department. Residents voted 903 to 800 for the audit at a special town meeting last year as the Karen Read case divided the town. Since then, the murder trial against Read ended with a hung jury, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office committed to retry the case, and the Sandra Birchmore case brought even more attention to law enforcement in the town. Prosecutors accused Read of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, and leaving him to die in the snow in January of 2022. Read argued she was framed in a wide-ranging coverup, and the actions of law enforcement — including members of the Canton Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police — have been heavily scrutinized since the onset of her trial. Last month, federal prosecutors brought charges against Matthew Farwell, a Stoughton police officer, accusing him of killing Birchmore and staging her Canton apartment to make it appear she had died by suicide. Canton police found her body during a wellness check. On Thursday, the five members of the Canton Police Audit Committee sat down to discuss the scope of services to help the town decide on a firm to conduct the audit. Some hot button issues discussed include the duration and price of the audit. Members of the committee openly and passionately disagreed among themselves several times during the meeting. Some community members also voiced their frustrations. Committee members say they hope to have the bids in by the end of September, and to have a firm get the audit started by November. More on the Karen Read case 15 hours ago Supporters of Read, Birchmore and Delgado-Garcia call for accountability outside Mass. State House Karen Read Sep 18 Ex-‘Whitey' Bulger lawyer tapped to lead Karen Read retrial prosecution Massachusetts Sep 18 2 candidates running to unseat Norfolk County DA Michael Morrissey in 2026

A man is in custody nine months after he allegedly killed another man at a night club in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Twenty-nine-year-old Edward Javier-Perez was shot to death at the Energy Lounge on Christmas Eve in 2023. The Essex County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that 27-year-old Franklin Laras of Lawrence was in custody, but did not say where he was apprehended. In March, the U.S. Marshals announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to Laras’ arrest, noting he was considered armed and dangerous. In the wake of the shooting, Energy Lounge’s license to operate was suspended “This decision was made in part due to fact that the matter is under investigation by the Lawrence Police Department and Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office,” Lawrence police said in a statement days after the shooting. “Furthermore, the nature of the incident, with the perpetrator(s) still at large, the Acting Chief has determined that in the interest of public safety, the City must close the establishment and suspend the establishments license to operate until such time that the investigation is complete. This immediate action is being taken on an expedited basis due to the overriding public safety concern.” Javier-Perez’ girlfriend, Gerimar Maria, previously said she wanted his killer to be caught. “We want justice,” she said. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt. Just justice.” Laras will be arraigned Friday at Essex County Superior Court in Salem. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney. More on the Lawrence nightclub shooting Lawrence Dec 26, 2023 Police identify man killed in shooting at Lawrence nightclub Lawrence Dec 28, 2023 Lawrence nightclub's license suspended following deadly shooting Sunday

Massachusetts State Police have shared details of the department’s internal investigation into a supervisor in the Karen Read case. Lt. John Fanning was briefly under investigation after it came to light that Trooper Michael Proctor texted a disparaging comment about the woman, who’s been charged with second-degree murder in the death of her then-boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, to other members of the department, including Fanning and another supervisor, Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik. In July, the department said that Fanning, Bukhenik and Det. Lt. Brian Tully, the unit’s commander, were subjects of an active internal affairs investigation. Hours later, a state police spokesman confirmed that the allegations against Fanning were unfounded and the case closed; both Bukhenik and Tully have remained on full duty during the investigation into their conduct. Fanning was investigated over whether he “failed to adequately supervise by not taking appropriate action after Trooper Proctor sent inappropriate texts to a group of subordinate members,” according to a report from the state police Office of Professional Integrity and Accountability obtained by NBC10 Boston. Investigators learned that Fanning was on a family vacation the week the texts were made, and he said he hadn’t noticed the text messages on his phone that day, and only learned that he was part of the text thread when Proctor testified about them in court. Proctor confirmed in court that, while going through Read’s phone, he told other troopers he had found “no nudes so far.” Proctor said in court that Fanning and Bukhenik were among the troopers in that conversation. “Trooper Fanning and Trooper Bukhenik are your supervisors?” defense attorney Alan Jackson asked Proctor, to which he replied, “Yes.” The officer investigating whether Fanning had failed to uphold his responsibilities found “insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove that this occurred,” concluded the report, which the NBC10 Investigators requested in July, shortly after state police announced the internal affairs probe. Read it here: The internal affairs investigations into Bukhenik and Tully were still pending as of Thursday. Proctor has been suspended without pay. More on the Karen Read case Karen Read Sep 18 Ex-‘Whitey' Bulger lawyer tapped to lead Karen Read retrial prosecution 15 hours ago Supporters of Read, Birchmore and Delgado-Garcia call for accountability outside Mass. State House Massachusetts Sep 18 2 candidates running to unseat Norfolk County DA Michael Morrissey in 2026 This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The nurse who was struck by lightning while walking her dog in Boston last year is telling her story, as she is discharged from Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Just over a year since the incident, Thalita Teixeira Padilla has had to learn how to walk all over again. Now, she’s moving to Connecticut, where she hopes to go back to work. “I am starting to think about the future for the first time in this whole year, and it seems very new, still,” Teixeira said. “It feels like I was born again, it feels like starting a whole new life.” She was accompanied on Thursday by her family and her dog, Bruce, who she was walking when the lightning strike derailed her life on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. The last thing she remembers from that day in Savin Hill Beach in Dorchester was someone offering a nice comment about Bruce. “He always gets complimented everywhere he goes, so he got a complement, we stopped — that’s pretty much where it all goes black,” Teixeira said. She woke up in the intensive care unit, unable to move her fingers. Teixeira spent more than a month hospitalized at Boston Medical Center in critical condition with a spinal cord injury, nerve damage and burns on her chest and legs, she said. Her mother, Marcia Teixeira, said it was so hard to witness at first: “I was crying so much because I don’t want to lose my daughter, but she is strong.”  She was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital to continue her long, difficult journey to recovery. But about two months ago, something shifted.   “Something went off like a lightbulb in my head, where I started to feel less pain in my body.” Teixeira’s main goal was to be able to walk again, and she’s now close to reaching it, moving with the help of a walker and the support of the rehab hospital’s staff. “It was amazing to watch, she was incredible to work with. She works really hard,” said Norah Sweeney, a physical therapist at Spaulding. “She was not able to walk independently when she came from in-patient and now she is out walking, going places by herself.”  More on the Dorchester lightning strike Boston Sep 9, 2023 Woman critically injured after being struck by lightning near Savin Hill Beach in Boston; missing dog found Boston Oct 18, 2023 ‘Amazing': Boston woman struck by lightning last month released from hospital