Jackson’s cause of death undetermined

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey says determining the cause of Michael Jackson’s death will require further tests that will take four to six weeks.

Harvey says there were no signs of foul play or trauma to the body. He also says Jackson was taking some unspecified prescription medications.

The spokesman says Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter is with Jackson’s family.

Police investigating Jackson’s death Friday were seeking to interview one of the pop king’s doctors and seized a car that they said may contain drugs or other evidence.

As the three-hour autopsy began Friday morning, police towed a BMW from Jackson’s rented home “because it may contain medications or other evidence that may assist the coroner in determining the cause of death,” police spokeswoman Karen Rayner said.

She said the car belongs to one of Jackson’s doctors whom police wanted to interview. Rayner stressed the doctor was not under criminal investigation.

The Los Angeles Times has identified the physician as Dr. Conrad Murray, 51, a Las Vegas cardiologist, and reports that Murray was administering CPR to Jackson when paramedics arrived.

A woman who answered the phone Friday at Murray's clinic in Houston confirmed to The Associated Press that Murray was Jackson's cardiologist. The woman, who refused to give her name, would not confirm the Los Angeles Times report that Murray performed CPR on Jackson.

The Los Angeles Times cites other published reports saying Jackson had received a shot of Demerol before going into cardiac arrest.

The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners Web site shows no complaints filed against Murray in the four years he's been a licensed cardiologist in Texas.

In a 911 call released by fire officials, a caller reports Jackson was on a bed and not breathing or responding to CPR. The unidentified caller said Jackson only was with his personal doctor at the time. The pop star died later Thursday afternoon at UCLA Medical Center.

911 Michael Jackson call

As stores reported they were inundated with orders for Jackson’s music, a chorus of grief for the megastar spread around the world, from statesmen to icons of music to legions of heartbroken fans.

“I can’t stop crying. This is too sudden and shocking,” said Diana Ross, who helped launch Jackson’s career. “I am unable to imagine this. My heart is hurting.”

Video   Reaction to the 911 call June 26: MSNBC.com's Courtney Hazlett talks with Norah O'Donnell about the 911 call placed for Michael Jackson. MSNBC

Lisa Marie Presley, briefly married to the pop icon in the mid-1990s, said he had confided to her 14 years ago that he worried about facing the same tragic fate as her father, Elvis Presley, who died of a drug overdose at age 42.

“The world is in shock but somehow he knew exactly how his fate would be played out some day more than anyone else knew, and he was right,” she wrote in a long, emotional statement on her MySpace page online.

The White House also weighed in for the first time, with a spokesman saying President Barack Obama saw Jackson as a spectacular performer and music icon whose life nonetheless had sad and tragic aspects. The House of Representatives observed a moment of silence.

Painkillers a concern
Brian Oxman, a former Jackson attorney and a family friend, said Friday he had been concerned about Jackson’s use of painkillers and had warned the singer’s family about possible abuse.

“I said one day, we’re going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson,” Oxman said on NBC’s TODAY show. “The result was, I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are. I don’t know what caused his death. But I feared this day, and here we are.”

Oxman claimed Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal to help with pain suffered when he broke his leg after he fell off a stage and for broken vertebrae in his back.

After Jackson was acquitted on child molestation charges in 2005, prosecutors argued against returning to Jackson items including syringes, the drug Demerol and prescriptions for various drugs, mainly antibiotics, in different people’s names.

Singer was prepping comeback
Jackson died Thursday afternoon at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him for three-quarters of an hour there before rushing him to the hospital.

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His brother Jermaine said Jackson apparently suffered cardiac arrest. The heart can stop for many reasons, from a heart attack to an erratic rhythm that disrupts the heart’s electrical currents.

Jackson was preparing for a monster comeback bid — a series of 50 concerts that was to begin next month in London.

A handful of bleary-eyed fans camped out throughout the night with media outside the Jackson family house in the San Fernando Valley and near his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. People heading to work in New York stopped to pay respects outside Harlem’s Apollo Theater, where Jackson performed as a child.

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A producer said Sunday’s BET Awards would be dedicated to Jackson because of his influence on music and pop culture.

“This is going to be the first gathering of people who really cared for and were influenced by him since his death,” said Stephen Hill, an executive producer for the awards. “It’s a tall order for us but we have every intention of paying respect to Michael Jackson.”

Hill said he expects acceptance speeches to be dedicated to Jackson’s memory and the influence he had on the artists.

A screening of Universal Pictures’ “Bruno” in Los Angeles on Thursday night cut a scene involving Jackson’s sister La Toya.

NBC News contributed to this report.