The news of NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant’s death at age 41 shocked the entire world, and the first media outlet put out the report was TMZ.
Now, Los Angeles officers are slamming the online gossip site for putting his name for all of the public to see, without giving authorities a chance to notify family members of the helicopter crash victims, including Bryant, who had survived or not.
Alex Villanueva, an L.A. County Sheriff, was very vocal on how he felt against TMZ, and its coverage on Bryant as reported by EURweb:
“There was wide speculation as to who their identities are; however, it would be entirely inappropriate right now to identify anyone by name, until the coroner has made the identification through their very deliberative process and until they’ve made notifications to next of kin,” Villanueva said.
“It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved ones perished and you learned about it from TMZ,” he added. “That is just wholly inappropriate. So we’re not going to be going there.”
TMZ has yet to even put out a statement in response to the criticism.
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Article Courtesy of EURweb
First Picture Courtesy of Icon Sportswire and Getty Images
Second Picture Courtesy of FREDERIC J. BROWN and Getty Images
Video Courtesy of KPIX-TV San Francisco and YouTube