Tom Petty’s Death Leads to Coroner Inquiry

“Breakdown” singer died Monday at age 66

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The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office is looking into the death of music legend Tom Petty, who died Monday at age 66.

“We are conducting an inquiry into the death,” a spokesman for the office told TheWrap on Tuesday, noting that the coroner’s office is currently in possession of the “Free Fallin’” singer’s body.

Petty died Monday after reportedly being hospitalized Sunday night when he was found unconscious at his Malibu home. According to TMZ, the singer was taken to UCLA Santa Monica Hospital and placed on life support, which he was taken off of due to a lack of brain activity.

A number of outlets, TheWrap among them, mistakenly reported that Petty had died Monday afternoon, after CBS News cited a Los Angeles Police Department source. LAPD later said that report was inaccurate, and that “initial information was inadvertently provided to some media sources.”

On Monday night, longtime Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers manager Tony Dimitriades confirmed that Petty had died at 8:40 p.m. on Monday, after suffering cardiac arrest.

“On behalf of the Tom Petty family, we are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty. He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived,” Dimitriades said in a statement. “He died peacefully at 8:40 p.m. PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.”

Petty and his band the Heartbreakers had recently wrapped up a tour with a trio of dates at the Hollywood Bowl, the last of which was on Sept. 25.

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