From today's TMZ Live Q&A chat
Q = Why the hell would LAPD delete the 24 hours of surveillance footage in the house of the most famous man on earth on the day he died?
Harvey: Here's the back story here. When Michael Jackson died the LAPD came over and they were trying to piece this together. At the time they came over this did not seem like a homicide to them. It looked like a death that somebody had but not a homicide. I got some sources that I was talking to yesterday. And that's what happened. They decided..
Charles (TMZ staff) : but still
Harvey : I know but what they decided was the video the surveillance video from the cameras at his house were relevant only to the extent to establish a timeline of when he died. So only they cared about was when he went into the house because they knew he never left after that. so when did he go in? so they found it around 12:30 , they got that video about 4 minutes worth. and that was it. they copied it over. and the video recycles every 24 hours. so they never pulled it and it's gone forever. so we have no idea. now you really wanna know who came in , who came out, when did Murray came, the whole thing but it's gone forever. And Murray's team wants it and they didn't even know this yesterday but we found out late yesterday put it up on the site today. It's gone. they just never though it was a homicide when this happened.
Charles: I kinda understand it but if it's Michael Jackson who is dying at that age isn't a natural thing. so your first thought should be - I would think - "let's make sure all our bases are covered here.It doesn't look like a homicide but he shouldn't have died at this age, let's make sure everybody who is here and when".
Harvey : It wasn't done.
Q = Why the hell would LAPD delete the 24 hours of surveillance footage in the house of the most famous man on earth on the day he died?
Harvey: Here's the back story here. When Michael Jackson died the LAPD came over and they were trying to piece this together. At the time they came over this did not seem like a homicide to them. It looked like a death that somebody had but not a homicide. I got some sources that I was talking to yesterday. And that's what happened. They decided..
Charles (TMZ staff) : but still
Harvey : I know but what they decided was the video the surveillance video from the cameras at his house were relevant only to the extent to establish a timeline of when he died. So only they cared about was when he went into the house because they knew he never left after that. so when did he go in? so they found it around 12:30 , they got that video about 4 minutes worth. and that was it. they copied it over. and the video recycles every 24 hours. so they never pulled it and it's gone forever. so we have no idea. now you really wanna know who came in , who came out, when did Murray came, the whole thing but it's gone forever. And Murray's team wants it and they didn't even know this yesterday but we found out late yesterday put it up on the site today. It's gone. they just never though it was a homicide when this happened.
Charles: I kinda understand it but if it's Michael Jackson who is dying at that age isn't a natural thing. so your first thought should be - I would think - "let's make sure all our bases are covered here.It doesn't look like a homicide but he shouldn't have died at this age, let's make sure everybody who is here and when".
Harvey : It wasn't done.