The non-public chef to the Obama household died of unintended drowning final month in a Martha’s Winery lake, the chief medical expert of Massachusetts has dominated, officers stated on Tuesday.
The chef, Tafari Campbell, 45, of Dumfries, Va., had been visiting the island in late July and was paddleboarding close to the previous first household’s summer season residence when he was seen struggling within the water, the Massachusetts State Police stated final month.
The chief medical expert’s workplace has decided that Mr. Campbell’s dying on July 23 was an accident, Timothy McGuirk, a spokesman for the state Government Workplace of Public Security and Safety, stated on Tuesday night time. Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama weren’t residence on the time of the accident, the state police stated.
The emergency providers in Edgartown had responded to a name of a “male paddleboarder who had gone into the water, appeared to briefly wrestle to remain on the floor after which submerged and didn’t resurface,” the state police stated in an announcement. One other paddleboarder was on the pond with him on the time and noticed him go underwater, the police stated.
Mr. Campbell, whose survivors embody his spouse, Sherise, and twin boys, Xavier and Savin, had labored as a sous chef when the Obamas had been within the White Home and stayed on with them afterward.
In an announcement on the time, Mr. and Mrs. Obama known as Mr. Campbell “a really fantastic man” and “a beloved a part of our household.”
“Once we first met him, he was a proficient sous chef on the White Home — artistic and enthusiastic about meals, and its skill to deliver individuals collectively,” they stated. “Within the years that adopted, we obtained to know him as a heat, enjoyable, terribly sort one that made all of our lives a bit of brighter.”
The Obamas stated they’d requested Mr. Campbell to remain on with them as they had been on the point of go away the White Home.
“He’s been a part of our lives ever since,” they stated. “Our hearts are damaged that he’s gone.”