{"id":88816,"date":"2025-07-24T14:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88816\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:16:08","slug":"new-details-emerge-on-malcolm-jamal-warners-final-hours-what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88816\/","title":{"rendered":"New Details Emerge on Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Final Hours: What We Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

As fans and friends continue to mourn the tragic passing<\/a> of beloved actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner,<\/a> new details have emerged about what exactly happened in the star\u2019s final hours. <\/p>\n

Warner died at age 54 in an accidental drowning<\/a> caused by a rip tide on July 20, 2025. Officials have been piecing together the details ever since, and those at the scene have reported that Warner was enjoying a day of surfing and swimming when he died. <\/p>\n

The overview below contains the latest details provided by officials and others on the scene in the four days since Warner\u2019s tragic death. <\/p>\n

Malcolm-Jamal Warner Arrived in Costa Rica on July 13, But His Wife Was Not There at the Time of His Death<\/p>\n

At the time of his death, Warner had been in Costa Rica for a week,\u00a0according to TMZ<\/a>. The outlet published a video and a photo of the actor arriving at the airport on July 13. TMZ reported that Warner had flown to Costa Rica from Atlanta. <\/p>\n

A source\u00a0confirmed to People\u00a0<\/a>that Warner was on a family vacation with his wife and daughter, whom he has never identified publicly. However, TMZ reported<\/a> on July 23 that Warner\u2019s wife was not in Costa Rica at the time of his death. <\/p>\n

A \u201csource with direct knowledge\u201d told TMZ that Warner and his daughter had been in the country for a \u201chome-schooling program.\u201d The source said his wife had been with them \u201ca few weeks prior to his death,\u201d but had left before July 20. TMZ was told she learned about the tragedy via a phone call. <\/p>\n

Malcolm-Jamal Warner Took Surfing Lesson & Was Swimming With Daughter Before Accidental Drowning<\/p>\n

The beach where Warner and others were swimming on July 20 was in\u00a0Playa Cocles<\/a>, located on the Caribbean coast, according to the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mike Geist, vice president of Caribbean Guard, a group of 35 volunteer lifeguards in the area, told Us Weekly<\/a> that Warner and \u201ca group of unidentified individuals\u201d were at the beach for a surf lesson earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a good surf lesson,\u201d Geist told the outlet. \u201cAfter the surf lesson, I think they stayed on the beach for a while and then decided to get back in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Costa Rica Red Cross said it responded to a \u201cwater-related\u201d incident at the Playa Grande resort in Cahuita, Lim\u00f3n around 2:10 p.m.,\u00a0per People.<\/a> Officials have since said that a strong rip tide swept Warner offshore. <\/p>\n

Geist told Us Weekly that there were three people\u00a0in \u201cdistress\u201d in the water,\u00a0including a woman and a young girl.\u00a0Those three \u201cwere able to get out with some help,\u201d Geist told the outlet, while a boogie boarder and a doctor who were on the beach dove into the water to\u00a0search for Warner. <\/p>\n

A second man who was pulled from the water, originally reported to be a 35-year-old<\/a> in critical condition. He has since been treated and released, People reported<\/a> on July 23. Dr. Mauricio Solano Corella, Medical Director for the Talamanca Health Area, told People that the man was a 29-year-old from Nicaragua who had also been trying to rescue Warner. <\/p>\n

Playa Cocles was once named \u201cthe most dangerous beach in the Atlantic Coast,\u201d\u00a0per the Costa Rica Star,<\/a>\u00a0because of its strong rip currents and \u201cirregular conditions of the beach.\u201d Nevertheless, the area is a popular tourist destination and haven for surfers. <\/p>\n

Official Says Warner Was Found \u2018On the Floor of the Ocean\u2019<\/p>\n

ABC News reported<\/a> that one of the surfers who dove in to help was able to rescue Warner\u2019s daughter using a surfboard to pull her to safety. <\/p>\n

Geist told the New York Times that the doctor who dove in to help, also an experienced surfer, was the one who found the actor. Geist noted that \u201cMalcolm was on the floor of the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe pulled him to the surface and did exactly what he was supposed to do,\u201d Geist\u00a0told Us Weekly. \u201c(He) gave him five emergency breaths \u2014 which is always our best chance of bringing someone back \u2014 when he got him above the water and then was able to bring him into shore quickly where they started CPR.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times,<\/a> three ambulances, a jet ski, and nine rescuers arrived at Playa Grande to assist. Geist told Us Weekly the emergency responders arrived within 11 or 12 minutes. <\/p>\n

In a statement to the New York Times, a Costa Rican Red Cross spokesperson explained that after Warner was found and pulled from water, he was given CPR for more than 20 minutes, but said rescuers were not able to resuscitate him. Police, meanwhile, told ABC News that CPR efforts lasted for 45 minutes. <\/p>\n

Warner\u2019s body was transported to a local morgue for an autopsy. The Judicial Investigation Department in Costa Rica confirmed that Warner\u2019s death was accidental, caused by \u201casphyxiation by submersion,\u201d per the New York Times.<\/p>\n

TMZ reported that Warner\u2019s body would be flown to Los Angeles on July 24, scheduled to arrive on the morning of July 25. The outlet said the U.S. Embassy has been working with Warner\u2019s family on returning his body to the U.S. <\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As fans and friends continue to mourn the tragic passing of beloved actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, new details have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,55707,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-88816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-malcolm-jamal-warner","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114908638945126568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}