The Royal Caribbean crew member who died after going overboard Thursday allegedly stabbed a female colleague before his fatal plunge near the Bahamas, police said.
The 35-year-old man – whose identity has not been released – is accused of knifing the 28-year-old woman multiple times in her upper body aboard the Icon of the Seas around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nassau Police said in a statement on X.
He then fled and jumped into the ocean, where he was later found unresponsive and pronounced dead by onboard medical staff.
Grim footage circulating on social media showed rescue crews pulling his body from the water about 30 minutes later, Cruise Hive reported.
The female victim, who also hasn’t been identified publicly, received medical treatment and is currently in stable condition, police said.
The cruise line said the stabbing stemmed from a personal dispute between the two crew members.
“Our onboard security team responded to an incident involving two crew members in a personal dispute,” Royal Caribbean Group said in a statement.
“One of the crew members was injured, was attended to by the onboard medical team, and she is now in stable condition.
Unfortunately, the other crew member is deceased after he went overboard and was recovered in a search and rescue operation.”
The cruise was nearing the end of its seven-day voyage through the Eastern Caribbean at the time of the incident, according to CruiseMapper.
The newly-built ship, which set sail on July 19, is scheduled to dock, as planned, in Miami on Saturday.
An autopsy is pending to determine the official cause of the crew member’s death, police said.
The shocking assault remains under investigation.
