LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson's brother says it's believed that the pop star died of cardiac arrest.
Jermaine Jackson cautioned at a hospital press conference Thursday that the cause of his death would not be known until an autopsy was performed.
He said Michael Jackson's personal doctor and paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his rented home in Holmby Hills. A team of doctors at UCLA Medical Center also tried for more than an hour.
Los Angeles police Lt. Gregg Strenk said at a separate news conference that police robbery-homicide detectives have been ordered to investigate, which is common in a high-profile case. Strenk says the coroner's office, which will handle inquiries into the type of death, is taking possession of the body.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.LOS ANGELES – Across the country, people reacted in stunned disbelief Thursday as word spread that Michael Jackson had collapsed and died.
Within minutes of Jackson's arrival by ambulance at UCLA Medical Center people began arriving by the hundreds, the crowd quickly filling a grassy entrance outside the hospital. As word spread that Jackson had been pronounced dead, several people burst into tears. Others simply stood in disbelief. Still others whipped out cell phones and began calling or texting friends.
At Times Square in New York, where people had begun gathering as word spread that Jackson had fallen ill, a collective groan went up from the crowd as the words announcing his death flashed across a giant TV screen.
During Los Angeles' notoriously slow-paced rush-hour commute, Jackson's music could be heard blaring from several cars along busy Wilshire Boulevard.
"I'm in shock. He's gone. The legend of music," Becky Williams said in disbelief as she stood outside Jackson's home in Los Angeles' tony Holmby Hills neighborhood. Williams, 26, of Salt Lake City, had been visiting her sister, who lives down the street.
Another neighbor, Roxana Radnia, was driving past Jackson's home when she saw an ambulance.
"I was just listening to his music, to 'Thriller,' yesterday on my iPod," said Radnia, 21. "And now this. It's surreal."
Outside the hospital, as news spread that Jackson had died, Seth Casteel pulled out an iPod and began playing Jackson's song "Heal the World" at full volume.
As the crowd at the hospital increased by the minute, police and security officers in plainclothes quickly blocked off entrances. When word spread that a news conference was scheduled for a hospital auditorium hundreds of people tried to rush in and police had to quickly shut it down.
Back in Holmby Hills, cars — many of them with stereo systems blaring songs from "Thriller" and other classic Jackson albums — began to clog the streets. As people began to abandon the vehicles to snap pictures of the home, a police officer used a loudspeaker to warn that their cars would be towed.
Among those who drove to the neighborhood was Sue Mossell, who was visiting from Georgia with her two sons, 7-year-old Ryan and 12-year-old Jimmy. Ryan placed a pink flower in front of Jackson's gate.
Across the country, reaction poured in from all corners.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died," a woman boarding a bus in New York City's borough of Manhattan called out to fellow riders, who immediately grabbed their cell phones to learn more.
"People are already texting about it, remembering his greatest moments," said 17-year-old Delmar Dualeh.
At Miami International Airport, travelers swarmed television sets.
Kathleen Magnaye of New York was at Los Angeles' Venice Beach when she received a frantic call from her boyfriend. She raced to Jackson's house with her 14-year-old sister to take photos.
"We're devastated," said Magnaye, 23. "I've been listening to him since I was 5 years old. My mom would put him on in the house."
On Hollywood's Walk of Fame, fans gathered to pray around a sidewalk star bearing the name "Michael Jackson," but it was the star for a local radio personality of the same name. Jackson's own star, in front of the historic Grauman's Chinese Theatre, was unreachable because of a movie premiere taking place there. After the premiere the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce planned to put flowers on it.
-yahoo-
The tragedy of Michael Jackson's death at age 50, reportedly from cardiac arrest, pales in comparison to the tragedy of his life. To understand all that Jackson had and lost requires wiping away three decades of plastic surgeries that deformed him, erratic behavior that made his name synonymous with the warping powers of fame, and a 2005 trial for sexually abusing a child that, even though he was spared of any finding of wrongdoing, made him a pariah to all but the most brainwashed of fans. (See pictures and listen to: "(Sort of) Celebrating Michael Jackson's 50th Birthday")
But if you can forgive or forget all that, underneath was one of the most talented entertainers of the 20th century. Quincy Jones who produced Jackson's quintessential solo albums was devastated by the news of his passing. "I've lost my little brother today," Jones said in a statement, "part of my soul has gone with him." Said Jones: "Divinity brought our souls together... and allowed us to do what we were able to throughout the 80's. To this day, the music we created together on Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all...." (TIME reports: Mourning Michael on Twitter)
Jackson was born in 1958, the seventh of nine Jackson children, and before he reached age six he had joined his brothers in the Jackson Five. By the age of eight he had taken over lead singing duties with brother Jermaine, but there was no question who was the star of the group. Little Michael was the best dancer and singer of the bunch, but he also had the mysterious thing that record bosses and studio chiefs crave: star power. Michael appeared to be his best and most interesting self when everyone in the world was watching. (See the All-TIME 100 Albums.)
As Michael aged into adolescence the Jackson Five, renamed The Jacksons after their departure from Motown Records, inevitably lost some of its charm. A solo career followed, and after a steady stream of middling hits that attempted to milk the last bit of innocence from Jackson's voice, Jackson had the good fortune to hook up with Quincy Jones while filming The Wiz. The two shared a vision for what Jackson's career as an adult might be and on 1979's Off The Wall they executed it beyond even Jackson's dreams. With songwriting help from Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Off the Wall spun off four Top 10 hits and two number-ones - "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You." (Read TIME's 1984 cover story on Michael Jackson)
At 22, Jackson not only became one of the most admired pop musicians in the world, but one of the globe's most famous people. And his fame only increased with the 1981 release of Thriller, which was to become the best-selling album of all-time (until it was eclipsed in the late '90s by The Eagles Greatest Hits, 1971-1975.) Seven of the record's nine tracks made the Top 10, and the Quincy Jones-produced hooks remain awe-inspiring. In a cover story about Jackson and Thriller, TIME described him as "a one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too."
While Jackson had few ambitions at the time beyond global domination, it's worth noting that "The Girl is Mine" established interracial love as a pop music theme and "Beat It" (with Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo) bridged arena rock and soul four years before Run DMC met Aerosmith. On March 25, 1983, Jackson may have reached the very peak of his fame when he unveiled his signature dance move, the moonwalk, live on the "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever" television special.
The years after Thriller, however, were marked by a slow descent into what was first dismissible as eccentricity. Jackson attended the Grammys on a triple date with Emmanuel Lewis and Madonna, purchased a chimpanzee named Bubbles and was diagnosed with vitiligo, a condition that he said was responsible for the steady lightening of his skin. But his songwriting genius remained undeniable. With Lionel Richie Jackson, he co-wrote "We Are the World," a 1985 charity single that raised an estimated $50 million for famine relief in Africa and ushered in the era of celebrity philanthropy.
After the release of 1987's Bad, a disappointing follow-up to Thriller, Jackson purchased the 2,800-acre Neverland Ranch in California, and his public weirdness became almost aggressive. In his biography, Moonwalk, Jackson wrote of childhood abuse at the hands of his father and multiple plastic surgeries, subjects he returned to in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey that was one of the most watched non-sports programs in American history.
Shortly after, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse in a suit brought by Evan Chandler on behalf of his then 13-year-old son Jordan. Chandler told a psychiatrist and police that he and Jackson had engaged in sexual acts that included oral sex; the boy gave a detailed description of Jackson's genitals. The case was settled out of court for a reported $22 million, but the strain led Jackson to begin taking painkillers. Eventually he became addicted.
To counteract the stigma that came with the allegations of pedophilia, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in a relationship Elvis' only daughter later dismissed as a sham. Two years later they divorced.
Given the tumult in his personal life, it's no surprise that the 1990s were a barren period for Jackson creatively. In 2001 he managed to pull himself together enough to release Invincible and stage two concerts celebrating his 30th anniversary as a performer at New York's Madison Square Garden. The shows, held a few days before Sept. 11, were a capsule of all Jackson had become. There were bizarre cameos from friends Marlon Brando, Liza Minnelli and Eliabeth Taylor. Macaulay Culkin sat next to Jackson in a royal box. But several hours after the proceedings began, when Jackson finally took the stage, all the years of Wacko Jacko melted away. Then in his early 40s, he could still dance and sing better than almost anyone in the world, and he still had star power. The Jackson on display in those concerts was one the world admired and the one that will be missed.
-Time-
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