Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead today after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.
When they arrived, Jackson was not breathing. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center.
The circumstances of Jackson's death remain unclear. Law enforcement sources said that Los Angeles Police Department robbery-homicide detectives have opened an investigation into the death, though they stressed there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The detectives plan to interview relatives, friends and Jackson's doctors to try to figure out what happened. The L.A. County coroner's office will determine a cause of death.
TMZ said on its website that Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. "We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back," the site said.
In May, The Times reported that Jackson was living in a Bel-Air mansion and rehearsing for a series of 50 sold-out shows in London's O2 Arena. Jackson had won the backing of two billionaires to get the so-called King of Pop back on stage.
The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.
Jackson has three children -- sons Prince Michael 7, and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11.
The Michael Jackson kids - Paris, left, Prince and younger brother Prince Michael, aka “Blanket” - usually go about complately masked.
Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died on Thursday. He was 50.
His lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, made him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.
Jackson, who had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, had been scheduled to launch a comeback tour from London next month.
Outside the hospital in Los Angeles about 200 fans and reporters gathered on Thursday, waiting for confirmation of Jackson's death or condition.
Some fans were crying and hugging each other, and others were climbing atop fences to get a better look at a microphone stand where a news conference was supposed to take place.
Johnny Caswell, a principal at Centerstaging, the Burbank soundstage where Jackson rehearsed for his London concerts, watched many of the run-throughs and said he was "absolutely shocked" by the performer's death.
Jackson, he said, was "very frail" but approached the rehearsals with boundless energy.Screeners "declared him healthy," Phillips said. "His cholesterol level is better than mine."
But a physical may not have revealed a looming heart attack, said Dr. John Harold, a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center cardiologist."This is the type of patient who could have a stress test the day before and it could be completely normal, and the next day could have a plaque rupture and a fatal heart attack," said Harold, who did not treat Jackson.
1 comments:
R.I.P. MJ!! SO SAD!! I feel really bad for his kids! It's also really confusing because there are all these stories about MJ but who do you believ!?
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