EXCLUSIVE: David Schwimmer is spotted walking somberly to his NYC apartment a day after paying tribute to Friends co-star Matthew Perry

David Schwimmer has been spotted walking near his New York City apartment, a day after he and his Friends co-stars paid tribute to Matthew Perry.

Schwimmer, who played Ross on the long-running sitcom, wore a baseball cap and face mask as he left his Manhattan home.

The 56-year-old, who starred alongside Perry throughout the decade-long series of Friends, seemed somber.

Just 24 hours earlier, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Schwimmer all signed a statement telling fans they were heartbroken by the news of Perry’s death on Saturday.

The cast told People: “We are all so devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just castmates. We are a family.’

“There is so much to say, but now we are going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”

The stars continued: “We will say more in due time, as soon as we are able to do so.

“For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends and everyone who loved him around the world.”

Perry famously starred as Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom, alongside Aniston as Rachel, Cox as Monica, LeBlanc as Joey, Kudrow as Phoebe and Schwimmer as Ross.

Friends, which followed the lives of six friends in their twenties living in New York, was a huge success around the world when it aired between 1994 and 2004, and reruns remain hugely popular years later.

On Sunday, a source told Page Six that the cast is “reeling” over the loss of their “brother” Matthew.

“The cast is reeling from the loss of their brother, because that was Matty – their brother,” an industry source told the news station, adding, “It’s just devastating.”

Perry was found underwater in his hot tub by his assistant, who lifted his head in an attempt to give him some air, first responders have revealed.

But by the time Los Angeles firefighters arrived at the Friends star’s home in the Pacific Palisades on Saturday and lifted him from the hot tub, he was already dead.

Captain Erik Scott of the LAFD said, “The Los Angeles City Fire Department responded (and) found an adult male unresponsive in a lone hot tub.

‘A bystander had lifted the man’s head above the water and brought him to the edge, after which the fire brigade pulled him out of the water on arrival.

“A quick medical assessment unfortunately revealed that the man had died prior to the arrival of the first responder.

“The circumstances are under investigation by LAPD and the LA County Medical Examiner. We mourn with families and friends who unexpectedly lose a loved one.”

Perry is believed to have drowned, although an official cause of death has not yet been determined.

An initial autopsy result has been ‘deferred’, and toxicology reports will follow. It comes after a 15-second emergency call emerged revealing the moment his assistant called 911 to report a cardiac arrest.

The recording of the moment emergency services arrived on the scene was shared and describes a drowning – known as a medical emergency 9.

You can hear a first responder say, “Officer 23. Rescue 23. EMS 9 on the radio.” In response to the drowning.’

The actor has been open about his struggles with opiates and booze, but said in recent interviews that he was clean.

First responders reportedly found antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications in the building, but there were no signs of illegal drugs.

The Los Angeles County coroner has listed Perry’s cause of death as “deferred” pending final results of toxicology tests.

On Sunday afternoon, the coroner released his body to the family, but said they have not yet determined a cause of death.

The medical examiner’s office may release initial results within days, but it could also take six to eight weeks for final results from toxicology tests to come back.

Perry wrote in his memoir published last year that he spent $9 million to get sober. He revealed that he had attended 6,000 AA meetings, been to rehab 15 times and been in detox 65 times.

He said he overcame his addiction in 2021 and was living a healthier lifestyle.

He had taken up pickle ball — a game similar to tennis and table tennis — and usually played it twice a day, friends said.

When opening up about his substance abuse and the toll it began to take on his body, The Whole Nine Yards star confessed that he was taking as many as 55 Vicodin pills a day, which helped drop his weight to just 128 pounds.

“I didn’t know how to stop,” Perry admitted in an interview with People last year, before sharing an analogy that explains the power drugs and alcohol had over him at the height of his TV career.

“If the police came to my house and said, ‘If you drink tonight, we’ll take you to jail,’ I’d start packing.

‘I couldn’t stop because the disease and addiction are progressive. So it gets worse as you get older,” he explained.

In his own mind, Perry thought he was doing a great job hiding his drug and alcohol use from his co-stars, but at some point they all knew he was in trouble and did their best to support him.

“(They) were understanding and they were patient,” he recalled of the Friends cast.

‘They’re just penguins. When penguins in nature are sick or seriously injured, the other penguins surround him and support him.

‘They walk around it until the penguin can walk itself. That’s pretty much what the cast did for me.”

For a while, Perry thought he could hide behind his infectious humor and continue his life on the wings of Friends’ success.

“I thought if I was funny all the time I could get through it,” he said. “I thought (Friends) would solve everything. That didn’t happen.’

Perry would eventually get clean and sober in 2001, but he estimated he relapsed “60 or 70 times” over the years, according to his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing.

Along the way, he spent a lot of time in rehabilitation centers and battled a number of serious health issues, including a five-month hospital stay in 2018 after his colon ruptured due to opioid overuse.

He was given only a two percent chance of living at one point in the hospital, Perry admitted in the memoir, but he would ultimately survive.

‘I am a very grateful man. I’m grateful to be alive, that’s for sure. And that gives me the ability to do anything,” he shared with clear emotion during the 2022 People interview.

Perry went on to reveal that part of his inspiration for writing an open and honest memoir, with all the ups and downs, was the hope that his stories could serve as a kind of lifeline for others, like Aniston was for him.