A lawyer representing the family of Michael Virgil, the Royal Caribbean passenger who died during a chaotic onboard confrontation, says the circumstances surrounding his death resemble the asphyxiation of George Floyd.
Virgil, a 35-year-old California father, was traveling with his fiancée, Connie Aguilar, and their 7-year-old autistic son when the incident occurred in December 2024. Aguilar has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing Royal Caribbean of negligence, excessive force, and failing to protect passengers from foreseeable harm.
The family’s attorney, Kevin Haynes, told TMZ that Virgil was served as many as 33 alcoholic beverages over the span of seven hours, a mix of beer and hard liquor, while using the ship’s unlimited drink package. Haynes argues that despite the package, staff still had a duty to stop serving him once he became visibly intoxicated.
According to the lawsuit, Virgil became severely disoriented and agitated as he tried to find his family’s cabin. Aguilar claims he was intoxicated to the point of ripping off his shirt and breaking doors while stumbling around the ship, behavior she says stemmed directly from being overserved.
Security was then called, and the lawsuit alleges that several employees tackled Virgil and held him to the ground with their full body weight for roughly three minutes. During the struggle, staff allegedly sprayed him with multiple cans of pepper spray and administered an injection of the sedative Haloperidol. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Virgil’s blood alcohol concentration between 0.182 and 0.186, more than twice the legal driving limit.
The autopsy noted that although the alcohol level was not lethal on its own, intoxication can suppress breathing and diminish a person’s ability to respond during physical restraint. Officials concluded Virgil died from hypoxia, impaired ventilation, respiratory failure, and cardiopulmonary arrest and ruled the death a homicide.
Haynes said that “the first domino” in Virgil’s death was mechanical asphyxiation caused by multiple Royal Caribbean employees applying their full body weight to restrain him. He compared the restraint to George Floyd’s killing, saying: “Everyone remembers that very tragic story with George Floyd, and this is similar in the sense that they suppressed someone against their will, restrained him, and caused him to stop being able to breathe.”
After Virgil died in the ship’s medical center, Aguilar claims she begged the crew to return to port in Long Beach, so the family could disembark. According to Haynes, the ship refused. Instead, staff allegedly placed Virgil’s body in a refrigerator and continued the cruise for several more days, leaving Aguilar and her son to remain on board after witnessing events that the lawsuit describes as traumatizing and preventable.
The lawsuit also alleges that Royal Caribbean has refused to release surveillance video that could show how many drinks Virgil was served or how security handled the restraint. Haynes said the combination of overserving, violent restraint, pepper spray, and sedation created the conditions that killed Virgil, and that each step compounded the next.
An FBI investigation into the incident has reportedly been opened, though the current status remains unclear. Royal Caribbean has not yet commented publicly on the allegations.