The death of a Royal Caribbean passenger has been ruled a homicide after crew members allegedly served him nearly three-dozen drinks at the ship’s bar before he died, according to a new lawsuit.
Michael Virgil, 35, was served 33 drinks at one of the ship’s bars on the day he died in custody in December 2024, according to a wrongful death lawsuit recently filed by his fiancé and obtained by TMZ.
Virgil was detained during a drunken rage, in which he allegedly attacked and threatened to kill crew members and passengers.
A year later, the family is standing by that claim in their new lawsuit, and they said Virgil’s cause of death was changed to homicide, legal papers show.
Virgil had boarded the Mexico-bound cruise with his fiancé and 7-year-old autistic son when they were told their room wasn’t ready that fateful day.
Crew members directed them to a bar, where they remained for a period of time.
But when their son grew restless, Virgil’s wife took him to check on their room while he remained at the bar.
It was during that time he was allegedly served the booze — and he broke into a rage when he left the bar extremely inebriated and couldn’t find his room.
Footage from the cruise caught Virgil attempting to batter down a door after he’d allegedly attacked crew members and threatened to kill passengers.
When he was eventually detained, his fiancé alleged “the excessive force and fatal actions taken by crew members including security and medical personnel” who “administered an injection of a sedative medication, Haloperidol, and used multiple cans of pepper spray” led to his death, according to the lawsuit.
Virgil died of “significant hypoxia and impaired ventilation, respiratory failure, cardiovascular instability and ultimately cardiopulmonary arrest, leading to his death which has been ruled a homicide,” the lawsuit read.
His family’s lawsuit is seeking damages for loss of support, future earnings, medical expenses, along with pain and suffering.
Royal Caribbean declined to comment pending the ongoing case.
“We don’t comment on pending litigation,” the cruise line told TMZ.
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