A police chief in Costa Rica stated that Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 54, was trying to save his daughter, who was also in the water, when he drowned. Elberth León, chief of the Tourist Police of the Atlantic Region, said he witnessed the scene firsthand. He noted that the Red Cross treated the girl at the site and she did not require hospital care.
However, Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency offered a different account, saying Warner was playing with his daughter near the shore before entering the sea with a friend. The current pulled both into deeper water; the friend escaped, but Warner did not. A second man, a 29-year-old from Nicaragua, was hospitalized after being swept away while trying to rescue Warner. León expressed confusion over the agency’s statement, pointing out they were not present at the scene and only interviewed Warner’s family afterward. Warner died on July 20 at Playa Cocles on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast while on a family vacation.
