Celebrity Death

Tragic news ... Caleb Swanigan -- the former Purdue star who was later picked in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft -- has died at 25 years old.

A spokesperson for the Allen County Coroner’s Office in Indiana tells TMZ Sports ... the ex-Boilermaker center died of natural causes.

In a statement released Tuesday morning, the Purdue men's basketball team said Swanigan passed on Monday night.

"Devastated," the school's team's account wrote in a tweet. "Our thoughts and prayers to Caleb Swanigan’s family and friends. The world lost a gentle soul last night. Love you Biggie."

Purdue head coach Matt Painter added in a statement, "Biggie had a positive influence in everyone's life. Was such a thoughtful person and gentle soul who had to overcome so much in his life. He will be greatly missed."

Before starring at Purdue, Swanigan compiled one of the greatest high school basketball careers ever in the history of the state of Indiana.

The 6-foot-9, 260-pound hooper was a five-star recruit, who earned McDonald's All-American honors after averaging 22.6 points and 13.7 rebounds per game in his senior season.

During his two years with the Boilermakers, Swanigan averaged 14.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. He was eventually taken by the Portland Trailblazers with the 26th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.

Swanigan played in the NBA with the Trailblazers and the Sacramento Kings until 2020.

Damian Lillard, who played with Swanigan in Portland, paid homage to Swanigan in an Instagram post Tuesday ... writing, "Rest In Peace Big."

The Trailblazers added in a statement, "We are heartbroken by the passing of former Trail Blazers player Caleb Swanigan. Our thoughts and prayers are with Caleb’s family, friends and all who loved him. Rest In Peace, Biggie."

Off the court, Swanigan had a music career -- rapping under the name "Slyy5jackk." He released several songs including "Thoughts/THOTS" and "My Life" in 2021.

Swanigan had just put out a music video called "Acquired Taste" in April ... and according to the rapper's IG, a new project was coming soon.

XXXTentacion fans are going all out to show their love on the 4th anniversary of his murder, with some traveling thousands of miles just to mark the sad day.

XXXTentacion's mother, Cleopatra Bernard, tells TMZ ... X's family, friends and dozens of his most hardcore fans gathered Saturday at his mausoleum in South Florida. We're told there was no planned event inviting fans there -- they all just came on their own to pay tribute on June 18.

His mom says she was shocked to meet fans who made the drive all the way to FL, from places like Los Angeles and Virginia.

Some of them started to gather outside as early as 9 AM ... and when Cleopatra arrived at the mausoleum around 4 PM to open it, there was still a good amount there.

TMZ broke the story when 20-year-old XXXTentacion was shot dead, back in 2018, as he was leaving a motorcycle dealer in Broward County.

X's mom estimates several hundred fans rolled through the cemetery, played X's music, adorned themselves in his merch -- and she says some even had replicas of his tattoos!

BTW, that all went down in 95 humid south FL degrees ... so, these were dedicated fans.

Houston Baptist men's basketball star Darius Lee was tragically shot and killed while at a gathering in New York on Monday, the university confirmed.

He was just 21 years old.

According to the NYPD, the shooting occurred at what appeared to be a barbeque in Harlem at around 12:40 AM.

Cops say when they arrived on the scene following reports of gunfire, they found nine people -- seven males and two females -- suffering from gunshot wounds.

Lee, who was ID'ed by Houston Baptist as one of the seven injured males, was transported to a nearby hospital after being struck in the chest by a bullet. He was sadly pronounced dead there, cops say.

Police say a firearm was recovered at the site of the shooting, but no further details regarding the incident were revealed. Cops say they've yet to make any arrests and an investigation is ongoing.

Houston Baptist officials mourned Lee's death on Monday, with men's basketball head coach Ron Cottrell calling the 6-foot-6, 230-pound wing "a remarkable young man."

"We are in shock and cannot wrap our heads around this news," Cottrell said. "My heart breaks for his mom, his sister and his entire family, and for our basketball team. The only thing we find comfort in right now is knowing where Darius is. He is in the arms of Jesus… we know that as fact. And we will see him again some day."

Lee was Houston Baptist's best player last season ... averaging 18.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. The rising senior was expected to graduate in December, the school said.

"As great of a basketball player as he was, he was an even better person," Cottrell said. "I can't even think of basketball right now. I can only think of what a light Darius was during his short time on earth. He was a joy to coach and we loved him so much."

Two actors in the Netflix series "The Chosen One" are dead after a car accident near the Mexico location where the show is being filmed.

The actors were riding in a van with several other crew members when they crashed on the Baja peninsula ... according to multiple reports.

Six other people in the van were reportedly injured as it flipped on its side while traveling on a dirt road near the city of Mulege. It appears the crew was traveling between Mulege and Santa Rosalia ... the seaside city where they've been shooting 'Chosen One' scenes.

None of the victims have been identified yet.

The series is about a 12-year-old boy who finds out he's actually the second coming of Jesus Christ, sent to save humanity.

Vanessa Bryant wants a jury to know that the sheriff's deputy accused of taking helicopter crash scene photos of Kobe Bryant was involved in another scandal involving excessive force where a handcuffed inmate's head was allegedly knelt on.

But, L.A. County is fighting back, insisting the other incident is irrelevant, and would seriously prejudice the jury.

About a year after Kobe, Gigi, and seven others tragically died in a helicopter crash, there was an incident inside a county jail involving a deputy named Doug Johnson ... who's accused of kneeling on the head of a handcuffed inmate for several minutes. The March 2021 incident received national news attention.

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department allegedly attempted to prevent the details of the incident from going public ... believing it'd be a black eye for the department.

It's not the first scandal Doug Johnson's allegedly been involved in ... 'cause he's accused of being one of the deputies who took photographs of Kobe's remains at the crash site.

Photos were then allegedly shown to civilians -- without authorization -- in places like bars.

Now, lawyers for L.A. County are asking a judge to prevent Vanessa's attorney's from raising the issue during the defamation and negligence trial -- filed by the Bryant family in 2020 -- and set to begin in July.

The county, in documents filed on Friday, argues the jail incident is "entirely unrelated" to Vanessa's case. They argue bringing up such a hot button issue like excessive force could have a huge effect on the outcome of the trial.

Lawyers for the county reportedly asked Vanessa's legal team if they'd agree not to bring up the other incident ... but VB's attorney refused, according to the L.A. Times. That's when L.A. County filed the motion.

A judge is yet to make a decision on L.A. County's request.

As for the jail incident ... Johnson was captured on camera leading an inmate through a hallway, before the man, awaiting a murder charge, punched him in the face several times. Once Johnson got the 24-year-old inmate under control and handcuffed, he allegedly knelt on the inmates head for around 3 minutes.

Tyler Sanders, a teenage actor with roles in big shows like "9-1-1: Lone Star" and "Fear the Walking Dead," is dead at just 18 ... TMZ has learned.

Tyler died Thursday in Los Angeles at home. The cause of death is currently unclear, and there will be an autopsy performed in the coming days.

Tyler's rep, Pedro Tapia, tells TMZ ... Tyler's death is being investigated and he's being remembered as a good kid who came from a good family.

TS started acting a few years ago when he was 10, and he'd already received an Emmy nomination for his work as Leo in the Amazon series, "Just Add Magic: Mystery City."

Tyler's other credits include ABC's "The Rookie" and the first season of Amazon's "Just Add Magic." He also shot a pilot back in 2017 with Leah Remini, and appeared in a bunch of shorts and a couple TV movies.

He was only 18.

RIP

Nipsey Hussle's murder trial continued with testimony from another man who was allegedly shot by Eric Holder the day Nipsey was killed -- though he remained pretty tight-lipped on the stand.

Kerry Lathan was shot in the back during the same incident where Nipsey died. While prosecutors asked Lathan a variety of questions, he didn't seem to want to get into specifics -- especially when it came to identifying who was present and naming names.

At one point, prosecutors played a video purportedly showing Lathan arriving at Marathon Clothing that day, but Lathan wouldn't confirm it was him in the clip, saying, "I don't know nothing, don't see nothing."

He testified when the shooting started, he heard "a lot" of shots, but wouldn't identify who he thought pulled the trigger.

Prosecutors asked Lathan, "You don't want to testify about what happened?" to which Lathan responded, "That's right."

As we reported, Holder allegedly told Nipsey, "You're through" before killing the rapper. Lathan was asked if he heard anything said during the shooting, but replied with, "He wasn't talking to me."

During opening statements Wednesday, prosecutors warned Lathan may not be very cooperative because of the involvement of Rolling 60's gang members in the case ... so his hesitation to be totally open about the events isn't totally surprising.

Very cool gesture by the Chicago Bears ... the entire team wore No. 41 jerseys at practice to honor Brian Piccolo, who tragically died from cancer 52 years ago Thursday.

Piccolo -- who spent 4 seasons in the NFL (all with the Bears) -- was diagnosed with embryonal cell carcinoma, a form of testicular cancer, back in 1969 ... and sadly passed away at just 26 years old from the disease on June 16, 1970.

Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said he thought it was important for his team to be reminded of everything Piccolo did before his death, so he brought out the jerseys for Thursday's anniversary.

"He was a really good teammate and he liked to have fun with his teammates, he liked to play practical jokes on them and stuff like that," Eberflus said of Piccolo.

"Just a real man and a real person and a Chicago Bear. So, I wanted to make sure they got that message."

Piccolo, an undersized fullback, ultimately gained national fame during the 1960s for his beautiful friendship with teammate Gale Sayers.

The two grew so tight during their time as Bears, Sayers actually dedicated his George S. Halas Award (given to the Most Courageous Player) to Piccolo just before his death. The gesture -- along with the duo's friendship -- was depicted in the 1971 movie "Brian's Song."

The Bears have honored Piccolo yearly with the Brian Piccolo Award -- which is given to one veteran and one rookie who best exemplify the attributes Piccolo displayed during his life.

Former New York Mets prospect Darwyn Encarnacion died following a horrific car crash in the Dominican Republic this week.

He was just 21 years old.

According to MLB insider Hector Gomez, Encarnacion was driving an SUV on Wednesday when it tumbled off a bridge and crashed into a ditch below it.

The former outfielder, according to multiple reports, had somehow survived the initial impact, but died at a local hospital a short time later.

A Mets academy executive in the Dominican Republic confirmed Encarnacion's tragic passing to Gomez ... saying, "He was a great human being, very disciplined, respectful and polite. He played with us for just one year, in 2019. He was even using his scholarship that the team gave him when he signed and was currently studying at university."

Encarnacion signed a minor league contract with the Mets in March 2019 ... and, a few months later, played for their Dominican Summer League team.

He logged 113 at-bats in 35 games ... tallying one home run, 10 steals and a .248 batting average. He was eventually released by the team in Oct. 2020.

Nipsey Hussle's alleged murderer, Eric Holder Jr., is standing trial in Los Angeles and prosecutors just laid out the details of Nip's shooting death in court ... and it's horrifying.

Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told the jury Wednesday ... after Holder gunned down Nipsey in a Crenshaw parking lot, Holder walked over to Nispey's bullet-riddled body and kicked him in the head.

The prosecutor also told the courtroom, Holder said to Nipsey, "You're through" ... with Hussle replying, "You got me," before Holder took off from the scene.

McKinney told the jury, Holder's kick to Nipsey's head shows it was a personal attack ... while Holder's public defender is trying to frame the case as something that happened in the heat of the moment.

You'll recall ... Holder was arrested a few days after Nipsey's shooting death, and he's charged with 1 count of murder, 2 counts of attempted murder (two other people were injured by gunshots during the incident) and 1 count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Sad news ... South Korean hockey player Cho Min-ho -- who scored the first-ever goal for the country's Olympic team in 2018 -- has passed away after battling cancer.

He was only 35.

The International Ice Hockey Federation confirmed Min-Ho's passing in a statement on Wednesday -- saying the forward died at a Seoul hospital after an eight-month battle with lung cancer.

"The Korean ice hockey family will remember him not only as a great player," IIHF officials said, "but also as a great human and leader on and off the ice."

Min-ho started playing for South Korea's national team in 2008 -- and became a hero during the PyeongChang Olympics.

Within the first few minutes of the team's preliminary round game against the Czech Republic, Min-ho scored ... making him the first-ever Korean player to hit the back of the net in Olympic men's ice hockey history.

In total, Min-ho competed in 11 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship tournaments ... and was named the team captain for the South Korean national team at the Final Olympic Qualification for the 2022 Olympics in 2021.

Two people have been arrested in the shooting death of rapper Slim 400, months after he was gunned down while sitting in a driveway ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources say they arrested a man and a woman Thursday in connection to the December murder, we don't yet know their identities or if they knew Slim 400 personally. We're told the arrests were the result of a search warrant that will be sent to the D.A.

You'll remember, the entire thing was captured on a Ring cam in Inglewood ... you see a suspect walk up a driveway before confronting Slim and firing a series of shots. Slim attempts to go after the suspect, but collapses.

Shortly after the attack, he was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Slim was just 33.

ZZ Top's frontman Billy Gibbons was thrilled when he heard Dusty Hill's estate was going up for sale ... until he learned his family had nothing to do with it.

We got Billy at LAX, and he says he had some cool finds he was hoping to contribute to this weekend's estate sale, but was turned off once he found out there's a random person -- with deep pockets -- behind the event.

Billy tells us an anonymous buyer snatched up Dusty's house after he died last July ... and they went through the place, taking any cool memorabilia they could find and turning it into this weekend's big sale.

He finds the whole thing a major bummer ... he was excited to contribute his personal stuff to the estate of his comrade-in-awesome-beards -- hoping true ZZ Top fans would be interested -- but now he thinks folks should steer clear.

As for what's actually up for sale -- his guess is it's not exactly Rock and Roll Hall of Fame quality items.

Captain John J. Sax, son of Dodgers great Steve Sax, was one of five U.S. Marines killed when their aircraft went down during a training exercise in southern California on Wednesday.

He was 33 years old.

The cause of the accident, which occurred about 150 miles from San Diego, is still under investigation.

John, who served the corp. for over five years and was awarded The National Defense Service Medal, was identified as one of the occupants on board the aircraft at the time of the fatal crash. His father confirmed the tragic news in a statement on Saturday.

"It is with complete devastation that I announce that my precious son, Johnny was one of the five US Marines that perished on Wednesday, June 8, in the Osprey Military crash near San Diego," Steve said to CBSLA-TV.

"For those of you that knew Johnny, you saw his huge smile, bright light, his love for his family, the Marines, the joy of flying airplanes and defending our country! He was my hero and the best man I know, there was no better person to defend our country."

Steve, 62, won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1982 and the Silver Slugger award in 1986.

Sax, who played eight seasons with the Dodgers (he also spent time with the Yankees, White Sox and A's), made five All Star teams. He also won two world championships with Los Angeles ... in 1981 and 1988.

Sax retired in 1994.

Major League Baseball released a statement on the passing of Steve's son ... saying, "Today we remember the lives of John Sax, the son of former All-Star Steve, and four fellow Marines of the Purple Fox family who perished in a tragic aircraft accident."

"With gratitude for their service to our country, we send our deepest condolences to their families and friends."

Bob Saget's close friends say they've been overwhelmed by the reaction of fans since losing him earlier this year -- and now they're giving back to those fans with a special tribute.

Lori Loughlin, who rarely does public appearances these days, joined John Stamos, John Mayer and Jeff Ross for an Instagram Live chat about their dearly departed pal, and Lori opened up about what she calls the "most touching part" of their mourning process.

She talked about strangers telling her how sorry they are for her loss, but also sharing how much Bob meant to them. She said, he "was everyone's dad, a part of everyone's childhood."

The 4 of them were chatting about the new Netflix special, "Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute." It was recorded at the Comedy Store in WeHo at the end of January, and Mayer said it was "the first time we'd gotten together where our heads had started to grow around this new reality."

He also described it as "this great moment between acceptance, but still being in a lot of pain."

The tribute show also features Jim Carrey, Chris Rock and several other of Bob's famous friends.

Jeff said, "[Bob] always wanted a Netflix special," Ross, 56, said at one point during the live stream. "I don't think anyone's funeral has been on TV since Lady Diana died, so the fact that it's happening now for Bob is kinda bittersweet, but I think he'd be proud of it."

The case against five suspects who were charged with murdering Puerto Rican boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho in 2012 has been dismissed ... after the key witness took off to Florida.

As we previously reported, the 50-year-old former champ was shot in the face while sitting with his childhood friend in a Ford Mustang outside a bar in Bayamon in November 2012 ... and later died from his injuries.

His friend, Adrian Mojica, was also killed in the shooting.

Almost 10 years after the murder, five men were charged for the tragedy in March 2022 ... three of who were already serving time in a Florida prison.

But, a judge in Puerto Rico dismissed the case on Friday ... after authorities say the witness fled the island.

Prosecutors requested to get a second chance for the case to be heard ... as they reached out to Florida law enforcement to assist in locating the witness.

Camacho -- who boxed from 1980 to 2010 -- was a three-weight class world champ ... winning the WBC super featherweight and lightweight, and WBO junior welterweight title.