CORONADO, Calif. — A 21-year-old Navy SEAL trainee with Alabama ties died in May during his first week of basic underwater demolition/SEAL training, more commonly referred to as BUD/S, and the coroner now says it may have been a homicide.
Seaman James “Derek” Lovelace began struggling during a training exercise called “drown-proofing” in which aspiring SEALs bob up and down in the water with their feet tied together and their wrists bound behind their backs.
“It’s a physiological test to see if a guy can do exercises in the water,” an official familiar with the incident told NBC News.
According to Naval Special Warfare Center spokesman Lt. Trevor Davids, Lovelace lost consciousness shortly after being pulled out of the pool. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Flash forward almost two months and the San Diego coroner is now expected to issue a report calling the tragic incident a “drowning homicide,” according to CBS News Pentagon correspondent David Martin.
“That is not a finding of murder, but it is a conclusion that he died not my accident, but at the hands of someone else,” Martin explained. “Navy officials expect charges to be brought against at least one of the Navy SEALs supervising Lovelace’s training.”
Lovelance graduated from Crestview High School in Florida and played baseball at Faulkner State Community College in Bay Minette, Alabama. According to the Associated Press, his awards and decorations include the National Defense Ribbon and Sharpshooter Pistol Qualification. His family says his lifelong dream was to be a Navy SEAL.
“I don’t know what to say. He was wonderful,” his grandmother, Jan Pugh, told The Virginian-Pilot. “It was a dream he was chasing out there. He was determined to become a SEAL. We are all just in shock.”
Lovelace’s mother passed away last year, but he is survived by his father, James Lovelace, an Air Force veteran who now works for defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and his two sisters.
“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of SN Lovelace,” said Capt. Jay Hennessey, commanding officer of the Naval Special Warfare Center. “Though Derek was very new to our community, he selflessly answered his nation’s call to defend freedom and protect this country. He will be sorely missed. We share in his family’s grief from this great loss.”
In a recent interview on Yellowhammer Radio, Navy SEAL legend Joel Lambert, who is also the star of Discovery Channel’s Predators Up Close and Lone Target, paid tribute to Lovelace.
“He had the courage to do something that 99.999 percent of the world never will have, and he gave his life in the attempt to join our brotherhood,” said Lambert. “And there is so much respect in that.”
