Michael Jackson Homicide Ruling Surprises Fans

The fact that it's a homicide makes it even more devastating,' one fan tells MTV News.

After weeks of speculation and rumors, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office report on the death of Michael Jackson has finally been released. Not only does officially it peg Jackson's death to the lethal levels of the anesthetic propofol in his system, but it also classifies the passing of the late pop legend as a homicide. So far, fan reaction has been a healthy mix of surprise, sadness, anger and outrage.

"I'm a little bit surprised," Jane Brackley of London told MTV News in Times Square. "Then again, you knew he was taking quite a few prescription drugs, and somebody had to give them to him."

Tony Tellez of Rochester, New York, echoed those sentiments. "I'm not surprised at all. It's a terrible thing, but I'm not surprised." Asked what he thought the fate would be of Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician and the target of the police investigation into the star's death, Tellez said, "I think that guy will probably have a hard time getting out of this."

New Yorker Natasha Jane took the news a bit more personally. "It's very disturbing, and the fact that it's a homicide makes it even more devastating," she said. "I'm a singer, so he was one of my inspirations. You just don't expect anything like this to happen to Michael Jackson."

Londoner Patrick Amara disagreed. "He had too many bad influences around him, and he was exploited constantly, so this news doesn't surprise me," he said. "I had tickets to one of the This Is It shows in London, and now I don't get to see him."

Amara thinks the justice for Murray — and anybody else who may have been complicit in Jackson's death — should be swift and sharp. "They robbed the whole world of the best show ever, and I think prison won't be nearly enough for somebody like that."