TMZ posted crime scene photos of Liam Payne, 31, showing an arm and part of a torso with a tattoo, but they received a lot of backlash and quickly took them down.
Liam Payne, the former One Direction singer, was found dead outside a hotel in Buenos Aires after he fell from his third-floor balcony.
Highlights
- TMZ shared a crime scene photo showing Liam’s body on a wooden deck at the hotel, with tables and chairs around it.
- Katia (cleaning lady) stated she cleaned his room and saw him using substances, but he apologized for the mess.
- In the end, the images were removed, and the text was updated to indicate that TMZ had seen a photo showing Liam’s body.
Argentine police said they got a call about a man behaving aggressively, possibly due to drugs or alcohol.
The hotel manager heard a loud noise, and when the police arrived, they found Liam had fallen.
Emergency workers confirmed the singer’s demise in the hotel’s courtyard.
The Hotel Manager And Cleaning Lady Asserted That Liam Payne Was Heavily Influenced On Drugs That Made The Room Quite Messy
Fans were outraged that TMZ posted pictures of the beloved singer’s dead body.
They felt that TMZ didn’t care about real journalism and was just focused on being the first to share news.
They should’ve never released that photo in the first place. They are literal garbage and scum!!!
Many believe that those images would still be up if there hadn’t been such a strong backlash.
liam’s payne hotel room + his death. pic.twitter.com/xRInfXv1Sg
— ttvfofana (@ttvfofana_) October 17, 2024
The pictures weren’t explicit, but they were shocking because they showed Liam’s body where it fell, shared so soon after his death.
It’s heartbreaking that his parents (Karen Payne and Geoff Payne) learned about this tragic news in the same way as fans, by seeing those crime scene photos that focused on his tattoos and torso.
TMZ shared a photo showing Liam’s body on a wooden deck at the hotel, with tables and chairs around it.
Así se encontró la habitación de Liam Payne.
El estimonio de la chica que le hizo la limpieza de la habitación es real, dijo que lo encontró drogád0nd0s€. pic.twitter.com/V6bywFy4Kj— René Egair 𓄂𓆃 (@RenEgair) October 16, 2024
The story mentioned that they weren’t showing the whole body, but one could see a clock tattoo on his left forearm and a scorpion on his abdomen.
The crime scene photos revealed that the room he was staying in was quite messy.
In the audio from the hotel owner about Liam Payne’s death, he reported to the police that a guest was on drugs and causing damage in the room.
Additionally, it was noted that he was heavily under the influence, with someone named Katia (cleaning lady) stating she cleaned his room and saw him using substances while he apologized for the mess.
Well, TMZ’s founder, Harvey Levin, didn’t respond right away to requests for backlashes.
It seemed TMZ began to question their decision to post the photos. In the end, the images were removed, and the text was updated to indicate that TMZ had seen a photo showing Liam’s body.
Fans started commenting on how inappropriate it was for TMZ, who did the same with celebrities like Rihanna and Kobe Bryant.
Harvey Levin is a nasty, foul POS for that. Not that anyone is surprised because of how they did Rihanna in 2009 and Kobe Bryant as well, after his helicopter crash, before his wife was even properly notified.
Similarly, the video of him jumping off the balcony, labeled with warnings for graphic content, has been circulating on social media.
Additional Information
- Liam Payne’s ex-fiance, Maya Henry, revealed that she once felt pressured to have an abortion by her former partner, whom she didn’t name.
- He shared photos and videos that appeared normal, which led people to suspect that he might have taken his own life.
- In a 2021 interview on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast, Payne opened up about his struggles with addiction during his One Direction days.
- He referred to it as his “pills and booze phase” and mentioned how he looked visibly bloated in some photos from that time.
