LA Times – by Andrew Blankstein
The Los Angeles Police Department said there appears to be no foul play in the one-vehicle accident that killed journalist Michael Hastings.
The Los Angeles County coroner on Thursday positively identified Hastings as the driver of a Mercedes that crashed on Highland Avenue near Melrose Avenue on Tuesday morning.
Hastings’ involvement with hot-button stories has led to a variety of conspiracy theories arising on the Internet over his death. But LAPD officials said the incident appears to have been an accident and that no other vehicles were involved. Officials are trying to determine whether there was a mechanical problem with the car. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.
Video of the accident scene showed the car engulfed in flames. Law enforcement sources said the car appeared to be going at a high rate of speed but emphasized that the investigation was ongoing.
The death of the 33-year-old Hastings was announced by his employer, BuzzFeed.
In a statement released Tuesday, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith said he and his team were “shocked and devastated by the news” of Hastings’ death.
Hastings was best known for a 2010 Rolling Stone profile that led to the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal. Hastings was a contributing editor to the magazine.At the time the article was published, McChrystal commanded all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. In the piece, he voiced open contempt for President Obama and administration policies.
After it was published, McChrystal was summoned to theWhite House to meet with the president. McChrystal resigned afterward.
The article won the 2010 George Polk award for magazine reporting.
Hastings started writing for BuzzFeed and joined theorganization’s Los Angeles bureau after it opened in October.
“Michael Hastings will bring his hard-hitting reporting on national security and politics to the BuzzFeed Los Angeles Bureau while contributing to entertainment coverage as a Correspondent-at-Large,” Buzz Feed said at the time.
Hastings covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also worked for GQ and Newsweek. He was the author of a book about his former fiancee, who was killed in Iraq in 2007.
“Michael was a great, fearless journalist with an incredible instinct for the story and a gift for finding ways to make his readers care about anything he covered, from wars to politicians,” Smith said in his statement Tuesday.
“He wrote stories that would otherwise have gone unwritten, and without him there are great stories that will go untold.”
Let them explain how the motor and tranny, plus drive-shaft, landed around 150′ away, perpendicular to the crash?
A small bomb blast perhaps?! Ooops, gave away too many clues.
There was no bomb. A bomb capable of launching the engine so far, would have also sent the bonnet on a journey. Not to mention the subframe fender supports would be splayed. It seems Jim Stone has observed this obvious reality and changed his story to similar. I’m not saying that a drive by wire throttle didn’t stick, high speed and a slight dip or change in vector is all it takes. Personally, I think this is getting MSM attention for a reason, and probably not the reason you think it is.. Similar to controlled opposition.
LAPD,the bastion of integrity with another thorough investigation completed! How could anyone possibly question what they said happened?
Pretty soon there will be no need for eyewitnesses, every case will be decided on a desired conclusion rather than evidence. If the neighbors hear a bomb go off, they’re all mistaken, even if the scene looks like a bomb went off. You have now entered a fact-free zone. Sort of like Twilight Zone, but this time it’s official.
Say, didn’t these same people investigate the Robert F. Kennedy murder?
My Fellow Americans:
Would that be the same LAPD that tried to make it look like Dorner spontanously combusted?
Ahhhhhhh,… yes,.. the LAPD,… the Citadel Of Intergrity…..
JD – US Marines – According to the LAPD,.. this is simply another Open & Shut Case of a car destroying itself…. (wink, wink,.. nod, nod….)
Yes people, there’s nothing to see hear with Hasting’s death, oh look, Tony Soprano died.
With the Left Angeles Times as well as the LAPD (two HIGHLY credible sources, don’t ya know) BOTH confirming there’s no foul play involved here, we must be imagining all these discrepacies in the ‘official’ story.
Time to loosen up the tinfoil hats, I guess.