Hundreds of people, some crying, converge on hospital on news of Michael Jackson’s death

Hundreds of Jackson fans converge on hospital

LOS ANGELES — Across the country, people reacted in stunned disbelief Thursday as word spread that Michael Jackson had collapsed and died.

Within minutes of Jackson’s arrival by ambulance at UCLA Medical Center people began arriving by the hundreds, the crowd quickly filling a grassy entrance outside the hospital. As word spread that Jackson had been pronounced dead, several people burst into tears. Others simply stood in disbelief. Still others whipped out cell phones and began calling or texting friends.

At Times Square in New York, where people had begun gathering as word spread that Jackson had fallen ill, a collective groan went up from the crowd as the words announcing his death flashed across a giant TV screen.

During Los Angeles’ notoriously slow-paced rush-hour commute, Jackson’s music could be heard blaring from several cars along busy Wilshire Boulevard.

“I’m in shock. He’s gone. The legend of music,” Becky Williams said in disbelief as she stood outside Jackson’s home in Los Angeles’ tony Holmby Hills neighborhood. Williams, 26, of Salt Lake City, had been visiting her sister, who lives down the street.

Another neighbor, Roxana Radnia, was driving past Jackson’s home when she saw an ambulance.

“I was just listening to his music, to ‘Thriller,’ yesterday on my iPod,” said Radnia, 21. “And now this. It’s surreal.”

Outside the hospital, as news spread that Jackson had died, Seth Casteel pulled out an iPod and began playing Jackson’s song “Heal the World” at full volume.

As the crowd at the hospital increased by the minute, police and security officers in plainclothes quickly blocked off entrances. When word spread that a news conference was scheduled for a hospital auditorium hundreds of people tried to rush in and police had to quickly shut it down.

Back in Holmby Hills, cars — many of them with stereo systems blaring songs from “Thriller” and other classic Jackson albums — began to clog the streets. As people began to abandon the vehicles to snap pictures of the home, a police officer used a loudspeaker to warn that their cars would be towed.

Among those who drove to the neighborhood was Sue Mossell, who was visiting from Georgia with her two sons, 7-year-old Ryan and 12-year-old Jimmy. Ryan placed a pink flower in front of Jackson’s gate.

Across the country, reaction poured in from all corners.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died,” a woman boarding a bus in New York City’s borough of Manhattan called out to fellow riders, who immediately grabbed their cell phones to learn more.

“People are already texting about it, remembering his greatest moments,” said 17-year-old Delmar Dualeh.

At Miami International Airport, travelers swarmed television sets.

Kathleen Magnaye of New York was at Los Angeles’ Venice Beach when she received a frantic call from her boyfriend. She raced to Jackson’s house with her 14-year-old sister to take photos.

“We’re devastated,” said Magnaye, 23. “I’ve been listening to him since I was 5 years old. My mom would put him on in the house.”

On Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, fans gathered to pray around a sidewalk star bearing the name “Michael Jackson,” but it was the star for a local radio personality of the same name. Jackson’s own star, in front of the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, was unreachable because of a movie premiere taking place there. After the premiere the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce planned to put flowers on it.

Associated Press writers Derrik J. Lang, Anthony McCartney and Solvej Schou contributed to this story