Navy Seaman’s Drowning in SEAL Training Exercise Is Ruled a Homicide
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Version 0 of 1. The drowning death in May of a 21-year-old seaman training to be a Navy SEAL was ruled a homicide on Wednesday by a medical examiner because an instructor twice pushed the struggling trainee underwater against Navy rules. The San Diego County medical examiner’s office issued the ruling after reviewing a video of the May 6 training exercise that showed the instructor splashing and dunking the trainee, James D. Lovelace, for five minutes after he had shown signs of distress. Kimi Verilhac, a forensic pathology fellow, and Abubakr A. Marzouk, the deputy medical examiner, also made clear at the end of the autopsy report that they viewed the Navy instructors as being at fault. “Although the manner of death could be considered by some as an accident, especially given that the decedent was in a rigorous training program that was meant to simulate an ‘adverse’ environment,” they wrote, “it is our opinion that the actions, and inactions, of the instructors and other individuals involved were excessive and directly contributed to the death, and the manner of death is best classified as a homicide.” Navy investigators are considering whether to pursue criminal charges against the instructor, who has not been identified. A spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Ed Buice, cautioned that the word “homicide” referred generally to “death at the hands of another” and was “not inherently a crime.” Legal specialists said that Navy investigators need to determine whether the instructor’s actions were negligent or abusive in the context of the arduous, make-or-break training regimen that SEAL candidates undergo. “You can put your hands on someone, but you don’t really dunk while treading water,” said Ed Hiner, a retired SEAL lieutenant commander who was a top training officer. “For them to find criminal possibilities, that’s pretty bad. I think it’s pretty damning.” Seaman Lovelace’s death is the latest of several episodes, including near-drownings and a suicide, that have raised questions about the supervision of the intense qualification process involved with the SEAL program. In April, Seaman Daniel DelBianco committed suicide by jumping off the roof of a San Diego hotel after dropping out of the training program, after its toughest part, a period of 50 hours without sleep. NBC News and The Virginian-Pilot reported last month that four other SEAL trainees had temporarily lost consciousness during pool exercises in recent months. Two active-duty Navy SEALs, Brett Marihugh and Seth Lewis, drowned last year while training in Virginia. The two apparently were competing to see who could hold his breath longer when both lost consciousness in the pool. Navy officials declined to comment on the medical examiner’s findings, citing the ongoing investigation. They have defended their safety protocols and said they increased counseling to trainees who had failed to complete the program after Seaman DelBianco’s suicide. The report by the medical examiner said that Seaman Lovelace died after a drill that called for the trainees to tread water in combat fatigues and boots with face masks filled with water. The instructors were supposed to create difficult conditions by splashing, making waves and yelling at the trainees. It added that training officials knew Seaman Lovelace was not a strong swimmer. Surveillance video shows that during the exercise, an instructor on a dive platform appeared to point out that Seaman Lovelace was struggling, the medical examiner’s report said. But the instructor closest to him then dunked him underwater. And over the next five minutes, that instructor followed Seaman Lovelace around the pool, splashing him as he slipped beneath the water several times. Other instructors splashed him as well, the report said. At one point, another trainee approached the seaman and helped him keep his head above water. Nonetheless, the report said, the instructor who was following Seaman Lovelace appeared to dunk him a second time and then “appeared to pull the decedent partially up and out of the water and then push him back” before helping him out of the water. Several witnesses, including other trainees, said that Seaman Lovelace’s face was purple and his lips were blue, according to the report. The report said the seaman was still breathing when he was pulled out of the water but soon became unresponsive. He died later that day at a nearby hospital. |