The 20-year-old passenger who jumped off a Royal Caribbean cruise last week after an argument with his dad has been identified as a former high school football player and avid hunter living in Florida.
Levion Parker, of North Port, Florida, has been missing since he jumped overboard April 4 in front of his brother and father on the cruise to Cuba and the Bahamas’ Grand Inagua Island, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
The release of his identity comes shortly after the Coast Guard called off its search for Parker.
Social media posts show Parker often went on hunting and fishing trips. He also played football for North Port High School before he graduated in 2022, according to the Daily Mail.
Parker jumped off the 18-story Liberty of the Seas after reportedly getting into an argument with his father.
Parker’s father was “fussing at him for being drunk,” fellow passenger Bryan Sims told The Post.
“When we got to them, he said to his dad, ‘I’ll fix this right now.’ And he jumped out the window in front of us all,” Sims said.
“He was pretty drunk,” Sims added.
Sims hung out with Parker and his brother, Seth, 18, in the hot tub in the early hours of April before going their separate ways around 4 a.m.
After Sims had used the restroom and dried off, he headed toward the elevators.
On his way there, he noticed the two brothers and their dad, Francel Parker, coming out of the sliding doors near the elevators.
“As we were walking from the hot tub back to the elevators, his dad and brother were walking towards us. His dad was fussing at him for being drunk, I guess,” Sims said of the moment before Parker jumped.
Royal Caribbean said it “immediately” launched search boats to look for him with help from the US Coast Guard.
Parker’s father owns an air conditioning company and the family was cruising on the boat as guests of Tropic Supply, a Florida-based air conditioning wholesale company.
Tropic Supply had invited dozens of contractors to mark the company’s 50th anniversary, according to Daily Mail.
The Post has reached out to the family for comment.
Nearly 400 people have gone overboard on major cruise lines between 2000 and 2020, according to the Washington Post.
As many cases are often deadly, many cruise lines have installed surveillance cameras and employed additional safety measures to help reduce risk.
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