‘Drunk’ cruise passenger dies after staff detained him over violent outburst and injected sedative, family claims
35-year-old guest was on Royal Caribbean cruise with fiancé and son
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A Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger died after being detained on board for drunkenly attacking crew members.
What should have been a peaceful Ensenada-bound cruise was disrupted when a man started distressing fellow passengers and crew members by threatening them, trying to kick down a door, and going on a profanity-laced rant, according to a Fox 11 report.
Passengers started noticing his behavior an hour outside the port of San Pedro in Los Angeles. One passenger, Christifer Mikhail, was on board the Navigator of the Seas with his wife to celebrate their birthdays with family and friends when the passenger in question – 35-year-old Michael Virgil – threatened them.
“The gentleman that was drunk said he was going to kill us,” Mikhail told Fox 11. “He started chasing us down the hallway.”
Video footage, obtained by the outlet, captured Virgil trying to kick down a door in one of the ship’s hallways.
The disruptive passenger kicked one crew member in the face and punched another, the New York Post reported.
At some point, cruise security placed the 35-year-old in custody with the help of zip ties, pepper spray, and handcuffs.
Within an hour of being placed into custody of cruise security, he died.
His family told the outlet that he had been injected with a sedative.
The cause of his death is not immediately clear.
Virgil left behind his fiancé and his seven-year-old son, both of whom were on the cruise, Fox 11 reported.
“He didn’t deserve to die over it,” one family member told the outlet. His family members said that Virgil’s behavior on the cruise was out of the ordinary for him.
The cruise line confirmed Virgil’s death to Fox 11.
In a statement to The Independent, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said an investigation is ongoing: “We are saddened by the passing of one of our guests. We offered support to the family and are working with authorities on their investigation.”
