Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s mother, Pamela Warner, recently touched on her son’s tragic passing and shared how she reacted when she learned about his death.
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, Warner, fondly remembered for starring in The Cosby Show, accidentally drowned after he was dragged by a water current at Playa Grande in Limon, Costa Rica, on July 20.
Warner, 54, underwent an autopsy, and his cause of death was ruled as accidental asphyxiation by submersion. Initial reports stated that he was vacationing in Costa Rica with his family at the time of the fatal accident.
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“They were in the water, I think maybe chest-deep at, even at that,” Pamela Warner told Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, per ABC7 New York. “Maybe waist-deep. There was an undertow and my son was not an experienced swimmer. He did not know how to deal with an undertow.”
Pamela Warner also addressed initial reports that claimed her son was attempting to rescue his daughter when he accidentally drowned. She said that was not the case as his daughter “was on shore.” “She was not in the water,” she added.
She said her son and another man were rather in the water when they got caught in the undertow. Pamela Warner also said the other man managed to get to safety.
“He was a more experienced swimmer, but Malcolm was not,” she said.
Pamela Warner, in the interview, also touched on her reaction when she learned about her son’s death, saying that she screamed “from the bottom” of her “soul,” and the people staying close to her even heard it.
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“What came up and what came out was huge,” she said. “It was an indescribable pain that resonated through my body.”
“That was his time,” she said about her son’s death. “That was the manner in which he was to transition, and this is what I believe and what I feel.”
Despite losing her son, Pamela Warner expressed her gratitude for being “chosen” to be Warner’s mother. “I think more than anything, I’m at peace with everything that happened. There was nothing left on the table,” she said.
“There was no shoulda, coulda woulda. I wish I would have said this, I wish I would have done this,” she added. “I don’t have that. I feel that our journey together as mother and son was complete.”
The deceased 54-year-old is survived by his wife, Tenisha Warner, and daughter. Pamela Warner stated that Tenisha and her daughter are still mourning Warner.
“Children process differently,” Pamela Warner said in reference to her granddaughter. “She watched them resuscitate him, try to resuscitate him. She saw that, and I know that’s awfully, awfully traumatic.”
“She loved her father dearly. She adored papa. He was papa. And so they’re both in deep grief,” she also stated.
Pamela Warner urged people to support the MJW Living Legacy page, an Instagram account she set up in honor of her deceased son, ABC7 New York reported.
“And love where you can, give when you can. Just be better. Just be better,” she said. “Because that’s what he wanted, and that’s what he was working toward. We can all be better selves.”
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