Friends of a Louisiana teen who jumped off a cruise ship in shark-infested waters last week say they tried to stop him, Fox News reports.
On May 24, Cameron Robbins was with several hundred fellow high school graduates on a Blackbeard’s Revenge sunset cruise in the Bahamas when he decided to leap overboard, allegedly on a dare.
A parent whose son was on the vessel told the news outlet that multiple students attempted to restrain Robbins, 18, but that he broke free and made the plunge around 9:30 p.m.
Authorities believe that Robbins went into the water near Athol Island, which is northeast of Nassau.
Search and rescue crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, and United Cajun Navy scoured the area for hours but stopped around 3 a.m. the following morning.
“This was a booze cruise, and they were on their way back when this happened,” the parent told Fox News. “My son texted me when it happened, saying, ‘Cameron jumped off. They can’t find him.’ They were out there until 2, 3 in the morning.
“It was terrible weather that night. The kids were cold, wet and traumatized. The girls were in bikinis and bathing suits. The guys were giving them their shirts. It was a bad time to bring drunk 18-year-olds out into waters near this island where there’s nothing.”
Tiger sharks, bull sharks, and dolphins are known to inhabit the waters in the region.
As CrimeOnline reported previously, the now-viral video appears to show Robbins in the water after the jump.
Robbins has been officially designated as “lost at sea.” A memorial service is scheduled for Sunday at Broadmoor United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, according to WAFB-TV.
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[Featured image: Cameron Robbins/U-High
