Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles have criticized the celebrity news outlet TMZ, for being the first to report the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter on Sunday, before police were able to notify his family of the tragedy.
According to CNN, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villa-nueva knocked the news outlet at a press conference while explaining why officials didn’t release the identities of the nine people killed in the crash earlier in the day.
Villa-nueva called the practice “extremely disrespectful” and “wholly inappropriate.”
The Hollywood Reporter editorial director Matthew Bell-oni told CNN that when it comes to the deaths of high-profile people, TMZ has an “in” with “the kinds of people who know this information.”
“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,” he said.
According to CNN, the speedy coverage comes several years after the celebrity news gossip site was the first to break news about Michael Jackson’s death in 2009.
It also was reportedly the first outlet to report on Whitney Houston’s death in 2012 as well when musician Prince died three years ago.
