The death of a 35-year-old man is being investigated by the FBI after he was reportedly restrained by crew members aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked in Los Angeles.
According to a passenger who spoke to Fox 11, the man was tied up with zip ties and pepper-sprayed by crew members on Friday after he allegedly became unruly. The cruise ship was en route from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico, when the incident occurred.
Passenger Christifer Mikhail said the man was drunk and violent.
“The drunk gentleman said he would kill us,” Mikhail told the news channel. “He started following us down the hallway.”
Video of the incident showed a man kicking a door to reportedly attack a crew member. According to Mikhail, he also spewed obscenities and made racist comments.
Later in the video, several uniformed crew members can be seen huddling around a person lying on the floor in a carpeted hallway. The man was on the cruise with his fiancée and young son, Fox 11 reports. He died Friday aboard the Navigator of the Seas ship and there was no immediate information about the cause of death.
In a statement to the news channel, Royal Caribbean Cruises said they are “saddened by the death of one of our guests.” We have offered support to the family and are working with authorities on their investigation.”
An FBI spokesman said in a statement that the agency “responded to a Royal Caribbean cruise on Monday to investigate an incident on board that resulted in death. “Our investigation is ongoing.”
