A Navy SEAL instructor has been temporarily removed from training duties after a sailor died during a swimming exercise last week in California, a command spokesman said Saturday.

The announcement comes a day after a report by NBC News and the Virginian-Pilot newspaper raised questions about the circumstances leading to the sailor’s death, contradicting the official narrative released earlier by the Navy.

Numerous sources told the newspaper that other SEAL students had witnessed an instructor hold Seaman James Derek Lovelace under water immediately prior to his death on May 6.

The incident happened during the first week of the infamously grueling Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs training, or BUD/S, at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California.

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