Kobe Bryant death: Police officials slam TMZ for breaking news before they could inform victims' families
Police officials have expressed their ire at TMZ for the speed at which they broke the news of Kobe Bryant's death, which meant some family members of those who died in the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star and eight others learned the news from the media.
Bryant, 41, his daughter Gianna, 13, and seven others were killed after a helicopter carrying them crashed in a mountainous region of Calabasas, California, on January 26, with officials scrambling to investigate the case of the fatal accident.
While reports seem to suggest that uncharacteristically poor visibility was responsible, police have refrained from commenting further, though Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva did take a swipe at celebrity news aggregator TMZ during a press conference.
TMZ had been the first to report the shocking news, which was soon confirmed by dozens of other outlets and Villanueva called out the organization while explaining why he could not yet reveal the identities of the other victims. "It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved one ... perished and you learn about it from TMZ," he said. "That is just wholly inappropriate."
He was not the only law enforcement official who felt that way either, with Los Angeles County Undersheriff Tim Murakami also calling out TMZ in a tweet.
"I am saddened that I was gathering facts as a media outlet reported the Kobe had passed," he wrote. "I understand getting the scoop but please allow us time to make personal notifications to their loved ones. It’s very cold to hear of the loss via media. Breaks my heart."
Bryant's death is not the first one that TMZ has broken either, and the website has an eerie knack for being the first to know of any high-profile deaths in Los Angeles County.
CNN reported that it was the first to break the news of Michael Jackson's death in 2009, as well as the 2012 death of Whitney Houston, who died in a bathtub, and the 2016 death of Prince.
"When it comes to high-profile people, they have an 'in' with the kinds of people who know this information," explained Matthew Belloni, the editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter. "If TMZ reports that a celebrity has died in Los Angeles County, it is almost always correct. For whatever reason, and you can read into this, their accuracy rate in Los Angeles is very, very good."