Royal Caribbean Cruise
Drunk Passenger Died Like ‘George Floyd’
… Family Attorney Claims
Published December 10, 2025 1:00 AM PST
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Updated December 10, 2025 4:10 AM PST
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TMZ.com
The Royal Caribbean Cruise passenger whose family recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit was served a staggering amount of booze before he was asphyxiated by security guards … just like George Floyd, the family’s lawyer tells TMZ.
Remember, we broke the story … Michael Virgil’s family filed a lawsuit Monday against the cruise line following his death last December after drinking a ton of alcoholic beverages.
Attorney Kevin Haynes now tells TMZ … Virgil was allegedly served a mixture of beer and hard alcohol — consuming as many as 33 drinks over seven hours before he stumbled away completely wasted to look for his family in their cabin. Even though Virgil had an unlimited drink package, Haynes still says there’s gotta be limits!
According to the lawsuit, Michael’s drunken search for his family was fruitless … which made him so agitated he ripped off his shirt and broke down doors.
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Haynes tells us … security guards were summoned and put their full body weight on Virgil, “asphyxiating” him for approximately 3 minutes. That, coupled with all the booze in his system along with sedatives, caused Virgil’s death, according to Haynes and the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s report. Haynes underscored that Virgil’s death “had echoes of George Floyd.”
The suit goes on to say Virgil fell victim to “the excessive force and fatal actions taken by crew members,” who “administered an injection of a sedative medication, Haloperidol, and used multiple cans of pepper spray.”
What’s more, Haynes says Royal Caribbean refused to turn over surveillance video to see who served Virgil all the alcohol.
The FBI launched an investigation, Haynes says, but the current status of the probe is unclear. We’ve reached out to Royal Caribbean and the FBI for comment … so far, no word back.
