Royal Caribbean personnel allegedly placed a passenger’s body in a “refrigerator” and continued their ship’s three-day cruise to Mexico when the man died following a physical altercation with staff after being served 33 drinks, the family’s attorney said.

Michael Virgil, a 35-year-old father from Southern California, was served the drinks during a day-long binge at one of the ship’s bars last December, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his fiancée.

Following the drinking session, which began as he waited for his cabin to be made available and continued for seven hours, Virgil left the bar, couldn’t find his room, and then flew into a rage, allegedly assaulting and threatening to kill crew members and passengers, according to numerous reports on the lawsuit.

Video recorded by a passenger on the ship revealed a visibly drunk and shirtless Virgil punching cabin walls as he searched for his room, the Daily Mail reported.

The Los Angeles medical examiner earlier this year ruled Virgil’s death a homicide, partly as the result of asphyxia during the struggle with staff that the lawsuit’s attorney says replicated conditions reminiscent of the infamous 2020 death of Minneapolis drug addict George Floyd.

Virgil had embarked on the cruise from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico aboard the Navigator of the Seas with his fiancée, their seven-year-old son, and other family members.

After a ship physician pronounced Virgil dead in the ship’s medical bay, his fiancée, Connie Aguilar, pleaded with ship authorities to return to its port in Long Beach, but the cruise line refused, the lawsuit’s lawyer Kevin Hayes said.

“They would not do it,” Haynes told the Daily Mail. “They put Michael in a refrigerator and continued the cruise for multiple days.”

The attorney has not clarified whether the “refrigerator” was one used for food or similar to those used in a morgue.

Royal Caribbean has not commented specifically on the case or provided what the costs or logistics would have involved to return the massive cruise ship to port. Navigator of the Seas typically features nearly two dozen bars and restaurants and houses some 3,300 guests served by a crew of more than 1200.

Virgil, according to his autopsy, had a blood alcohol level of 0.182 to 0.186 percent, which is nearly double the legal driving limit. He reportedly had purchased an “all you can drink” package for the trip.

The medical examiner found Virgil’s cause of death to be “mechanical asphyxia combined with obesity, an enlarged heart, and ethanol intoxication,” according to a report by the New York Times. Crew members had reportedly put their full weight on his body to subdue Virgil.

There is some dispute as to whether other factors that may have led to Virgil’s demise. The lawsuit claims staff bombarded Virgil with several cans of pepper spray and injected him with a haloperidol, an antipsychotic sedative during the rampage.

However, the medical examiner found no evidence of the drug in his system “despite reported administration.” The FBI is reportedly investigating the case.

“The first domino that fell in terms of causing his death was mechanical asphyxiation, and that is where approximately five, maybe more, Royal Caribbean employees were trying to restrain him by putting their full body weight on him,” Haynes told the Mail. “And they did that for three minutes.”

Haynes compared the incident to the death of George Floyd, in that Virgil was restrained with such force that he was not able to breathe. However, the causes of Floyd’s death were also fraught with controversy as heart disease and drug use were cited as contributing factors.

The attorney has said Virgil’s family is not excusing “the way he was behaving” but also is saying he should have been cut off at the bar and not allowed to become so intoxicated.

“His behavior was out of character for him,” Haynes said. “He was scared and acting out of fear. Whatever Michael may have done during that stressful time, fueled by alcohol, it shouldn’t have given him a death sentence.”

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.