Update

Though an autopsy scheduled for Friday will shed light on what exactly caused the cardiac arrest which killed pop icon Michael Jackson, that hasn’t stopped some who were close to the family from speculating.

US Magazine is reporting that Brian Oxman, the Jackson family lawyer, has said that prescription drugs may have caused Jackson’s death.

Oxman said that while he didn’t “know what caused Michael’s death,” nor did he “want to speculate as to what the causes” were, he nonetheless observed to US Magazine that “I warned them there was the misuse of prescription medications by people who were enabling him” and those people “should never have been permitted to allow him to use those medications in the manner I observed.”

Though Oxman declined to specially name the drugs that Jackson was supposedly taking, he did say that Jackson took painkillers to ease the pain of a cracked vertebrae in his back.

At the time of his death, Michael Jackson was setting the stage for an elaborate comeback, setting to play 50 sold-out shows London’s O2 Arena beginning next month. The level of interest in Jackson’s death may suggest that there was still a great degree of interest in Jackson and his music.

According to the BBC, search engines such as Google and AOL experience significant slowdowns as people rushed to the internet to search the latest news surrounding Jackson’s death.

Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker told the BBC that “Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson” during the time of 2:40 and 3.15 P.M. Pacific time, around the time Jackson’s death was confirmed.

People who Googled terms like “Michael Jackson died” were greeted, according to the BBC, with an error message “your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application.”

As of this writing, it appears that Google users have been successfully searching terms like “michael jackson songs listen,” “michael jackson music online” and “michael jackson radio station” in order to appreciate Jackson’s music.

Original Story

Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop”, died at the age of 50 from a suffered a cardiac arrest in his home in L.A, California today.

According to celebrity gossip website, TMZ, a call for an ambulance was made at 12:21 P.M. and paramedics administered CPR to Jackson as they transported him to UCLA Hospital.

Paramedics tell TMZ that when they arrived at Jackson’s home, he had no pulse, and the crew were unable to get it back.

Another celebrity gossip site, X17 Online, reported that Captain Steve Ruda of the Los Angeles Fire Department told the LA Times that Jackson was not breathing when they arrived at his home.

Earlier, TMZ reported that his relatives at the hospital say the famous singer was not doing well.

Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, said in a phone interview that his son was “not doing well.”

Another family member told TMZ that Jackson was in “really bad shape.”

Michael has three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.

Jackson, 50, rose to fame initially as a member of the Jackson 5. He began his solo career in 1971, and with best-selling albums like Thriller and Dangerous, established himself internationally as “The King of Pop” and one of the most influential figures in hip hop, pop and R&B history.

However, Jackson’s reputation was severely tarnished in 1993 when he was accused of child sexual abuse. The charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence, but Jackson once again found himself under public scrutiny when he was tried but acquitted in 2005 for sexual abuse.