The death of a Navy SEAL trainee during a water exercise in Coronado, California, has been ruled a homicide by the San Diego County Medical Examiner (ME) in a report that states the trainee was repeatedly “dunked” underwater by an instructor.
On May 6, active-duty Navy seaman James Derek Lovelace, 21, was at Naval Base Coronado undergoing training regimens. He completed a round of land-based trainings before heading to the Naval Amphibious Base for drills in a swimming pool, a report released Wednesday by the ME said.
The training session in the swimming pool was supposed to last about two hours. The ME report said the drill “consisted of swimming the length of the pool, which was depth-graded between four and 15 feet, in their fatigues and boots.”
The exercise – dubbed “Combat Swimmer Orientation” – also called for trainees to tread water while their masks were filled with water. During this, instructors were supposed to create “adverse” conditions by splashing, making waves and yelling at the trainees, the report said.
The instructors, however, are told not to pull or dunk students underwater.
About 38 minutes into the exercise, Lovelace began experiencing distress and was pulled from the water. He was initially reportedly responsive but soon, he lost consciousness, according to the report.
Efforts to revive the trainee were unsuccessful. Medics were called to the base and Lovelace was rushed to Sharp-Coronado Hospital. At 2:36 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Officials launched an investigation into Lovelace’s death.
According to the ME’s report, on June 29, an investigator with the ME’s office watched video surveillance of the pool exercise provided by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).
The investigator said the video shows Lovelace struggling in the water. At one point, an instructor pointed out Lovelace, approached him, and dunked him underwater. That instructor then continued to “follow” Lovelace around the pool.
The dunking and splashing of Lovelace by the instructor – later joined by other instructors – continued for about five minutes, the ME investigator said.
Several instructors were in the water, while others were on the edges on the pool and on dive platforms during the drill.
At one point, another trainee tried to help Lovelace, the report said, by keeping his head above the water. However, the instructor then dunked Lovelace again – partially pulling him out of the water before pushing him back into the pool.
Eventually, Lovelace was completely pulled out of the water.
In the end, the autopsy report declared Lovelace’s cause of death to be drowning, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide due to the "actions and inactions of the instructors."
"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, 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 homicide," the report stated.
Lovelace enlisted in the U.S. Navy boot camp in November 2015 and began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) in January 2016.
Naval reports indicated Lovelace was not a strong swimmer. The autopsy said Lovelace had been prescribed Singulair a year before his death, used for the treatment of asthma, prevention of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction and relief of allergic rhinitis.
Amid the investigation into Lovelace's death, the instructor tied to the deadly drill was reassigned.
Lovelace was the fifth Navy SEAL in four months to lose consciousness in a BUD/S pool exercise, according to Navy safety data, NBC News reported, an increase in pool blackout reports compared to recent years.
Photo Credit: U.S. Navy