Nearly a year after a man’s homicide aboard a cruise ship, the family is filing suit against Royal Caribbean, faulting both the security’s response to his behavior and the amount of alcohol he was served.
(Video Credit: Fox 11 Los Angeles)
What was supposed to be a four-day cruise from Los Angeles, California, to Ensenada, Mexico, in December 2024 turned into a tragedy mere hours into the voyage when 35-year-old Michael Virgil died aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas. Now, the decedent’s fiancée and mother of his son, both of whom were aboard the cruise, is suing the cruise line, alleging maritime wrongful death after Virgil had been served no fewer than 33 alcoholic beverages.
“Michael’s family has suffered unimaginable heartache and torment caused by Royal Caribbean, a mega cruise line that prioritizes profit over passenger safety,” asserted Kherker Garcia law firm partner Kevin Haynes in a statement reported by Fox News Digital. “Crew members, including security and medical personnel, are required to undergo rigorous competency training; it is very clear that Royal Caribbean is completely negligent in the hiring, training, and supervision of its vast fleet of maritime employees.”
According to the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Virgil had been directed to a bar with live music while awaiting access to his cabin and within hours had been served at least 33 alcoholic beverages via the “Deluxe Beverage Package” before setting off to find his room. It was then that the intoxicated man was said to have become “agitated,” having “got lost.”
Video taken aboard the ship showed the decedent kicking at a door and screaming while surrounded by crew members who ultimately subdued the man, allegedly tackling him and using three cans of pepper spray on him before they were directed by the staff captain to inject him with the sedative Haloperidol.
The suit further alleged the response to Virgil’s behavior “directly caused significant hypoxia and impaired ventilation, respiratory failure, cardiovascular instability, and ultimately cardiopulmonary arrest leading to DECEDENT’S death as the crew was said to have compressed his body.
Additionally, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner listed the cause of death as the “combined effects of mechanical asphyxia, obesity, cardiomegaly, and ethanol intoxication,” ruling homicide as the mode of death, with Haynes likening the incident to the 2020 death of George Floyd while in police custody.
“What was supposed to be a beautiful family vacation came to an unimaginably tragic end due to the reprehensible way the situation — that should have never occurred — was handled,” said the attorney. “We are seeing an incredibly alarming number of serious injuries and fatalities on cruise ships of late.”
“Our goal is to force systemic change in the way this industry operates to ensure that no person or family experiences tragedy like this again,” he added.
In their own statement to the media, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson expressed, “We were saddened by the passing of one of our guests, worked with authorities on their investigation, and will refrain from commenting any further on pending litigation.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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