At what time michael jackson died
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Executive summary
Michael Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 25, 2009, at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after being found unresponsive at his rented Holmby Hills home earlier that day [1]. Emergency services were called from the home at 12:21 p.m. PDT, paramedics attempted resuscitation, and the public confirmation and media frenzy followed within hours [2] [1].
1. The timeline that matters: collapse, 9‑1‑1 and the hospital pronouncement
On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson was discovered unresponsive in his North Carolwood Drive residence and his personal physician and security called emergency services; security placed the 9‑1‑1 call at 12:21 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, paramedics treated him at the home and transported him to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead at 2:26 p.m. PDT [2] [1].
2. Why two times appear in reporting and how they fit together
Contemporaneous accounts and institutional statements create two anchor times: the timestamp of the 9‑1‑1 call at 12:21 p.m., which documents when emergency responders were alerted, and the hospital pronouncement at 2:26 p.m., which is the formal time of death used by UCLA and repeated in news reports and the family statement—those two times describe different steps in the same medical emergency, not a contradiction [2] [1].
3. How the moment became central to a criminal case and public narrative
The narrow window between the in‑home collapse and the 2:26 p.m. pronouncement became crucial evidence in investigations that followed: toxicology and autopsy work, a coroner’s ruling that later listed the death as a homicide, and the criminal prosecution that resulted in the conviction of Michael Jackson’s physician for involuntary manslaughter—each relied on reconstructing events in that day’s timeline [3] [4].
4. Media fallout: when the world learned and how fast news spread
News organizations and celebrity websites amplified the official timeline almost immediately; TMZ broke the story minutes after the hospital pronouncement and other outlets confirmed it within the hour, causing an unprecedented surge of online traffic and widespread global reaction that stemmed from the 2:26 p.m. confirmation [2] [5].
5. Disputes, lingering questions and what the records do not settle
While the pronouncement time is well documented in UCLA’s official statement and widely reported accounts, reporting and later investigations focused less on clock‑time than on cause, responsibility and medical detail—matters addressed by autopsy reports, toxicology and court evidence rather than by the simple timestamp of death, and those issues continue to be where disputes and public fascination concentrate [1] [6].
6. Bottom line: the authoritative timestamp
The authoritative institutional record is the UCLA statement and contemporaneous media reporting: Michael Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 25, 2009; earlier that day, emergency services had been called at about 12:21 p.m. PDT after he was found unresponsive at his home [1] [2].