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Brian Laundrie was extremely upset when he left home for good about a month ago and his dad tried but failed to stop him ... so says the family's lawyer.

Steven Bertolino said on MSNBC Thursday Brian's father, Chris, tried to stop Laundrie from leaving the day he took off for the woods, but Brian was determined and there was nothing his dad could do.

The most interesting part of the conversation ... whether Laundrie's parents will reach out to the Petito family ... presumably to offer condolences and discuss what happened.

Bertolino hedged, saying certain conversations must happen first before there's any communication between the two families. He never amplified on the nature of those conversations, but he offered a hint ... that Bertolino needed first to have a discussion with the Petito family attorney.

This sounds like Bertolino is worried about a wrongful death lawsuit, which is definitely in the cards. The other fairly obvious concern ... whether cops have Brian's parents under a microscope to determine if they in any way helped him escape ... something Bertolino has dismissed as hogwash.

As we reported ... the remains found Wednesday at the Carlton Reserve -- a portion of a skull -- was positively ID'd as Laundrie's.

One thing that could be highly relevant in determining what happened to Gabby Petito -- the contents of Laundrie's backpack, which was found near the remains. The question ... did he leave a note detailing what happened to her.

Dog the Bounty Hunter has vacated the state of Florida amid his search for Brian Laundrie -- but that doesn't mean the guy's throwing in the towel ... quite the opposite, in fact.

Sources close to Duane Chapman tell TMZ ... he's back in Colorado -- where he normally lives -- and has plans to meet with his doctor over his recent ankle injury ... which he suffered while on the hunt for the elusive Laundrie.

He might be down and on the mend at the moment, but that doesn't mean Dog is out of the fight -- we're told he still has reason to believe BL is alive ... and will continue filtering through tips.

Speaking of those ... we're told that since he's been back in the Rockies, Dog's received upwards of 4,000 possible leads -- through which he's sifting for one that might be legit. As you can imagine, it's a daunting task -- but DTBH is up for it.

Consider this as well ... Dog was roughing it in the Sunshine State -- which our sources say took a toll on him. The guy was seen wading through marshy swamps in the area -- but even beyond that ... we're told he'd been putting in 20-hour days, and sustained injuries that he hasn't really made public ... leaving him cut up and bloodied.

Now, as to whether Dog will return to Florida once he's back to 100% ... we're told he absolutely will. Our sources say Dog is still invested in the case, and will get back into the field soon.

Cops were called to the scene where an abandoned bike was found just a few miles from where surveillance video was shot of a man who resembles Brian Laundrie ... TMZ has learned.

A used car sales manager named Jon in Hernando, FL tells us he discovered the bike near his shop -- he believes it was left there either Friday night or Saturday morning. Jon called the cops, who came to the scene and fingerprinted the bike Tuesday.

Jon says officers only spent about 15 minutes on scene, but told him Laundrie tips come in quite frequently to their department ... and most are dead ends.

The location of the bike is interesting ... considering we obtained a surveillance video shot in the area last week of a man who resembled Laundrie, riding a bike on a deserted road surrounded by heavy brush. In the video ... you see the man struggle to pedal on the sandy road, wearing a very large backpack. The area where the man was riding is 3 hours from the home of Laundrie's parents.

We should say ... the design of the two bikes appears to be different, but nonetheless, the abandoned bike was suspicious enough for cops to come out.

Laundrie has been on the run for more than a month now, and it's widely believed he had something to do with the murder of his fiancee, Gabby Petitio. Authorities say Petito was strangled to death, and her body was left in the wilderness for weeks before being discovered.

Another shooting went down Tuesday night in Bev Hills -- the latest one to hit the ritzy town this year ... which begs a serious question about violent crime in the 90210.

Beverly Hills PD says it responded to reports of a shooting late Tuesday night, which went down near Italian restaurant Via Alloro ... and left one victim with a gunshot wound to the leg. Cops say the shooting was the result of an attempted armed robbery.

It sounds like the perp(s) left empty-handed and the police are on the hunt ... but remember, something very similar happened a few short months ago at nearby celeb hot spot Il Pastaio, where a handful of men pulled off something similar -- in broad daylight, no less.

We broke the story ... cops ended up arresting 3 alleged gang members in May, whom they say had the audacity to pull an armed robbery in March, in pursuit of a $500k Richard Mille watch a man was wearing -- which they successfully stole, while leaving a woman shot in the leg as they fled. Here, too, somebody was left with a bullet in their lower half.

This is NOT a new phenomenon, BTW -- Bev Hills has long been a place where criminals have tried stealing jewelry off of people's bodies -- especially pricey Rolex watches, and other valuables -- but it now seems to be spinning into a violent endeavor, with guns blazing.

We looked into the crime stats too over the past couple years -- and sure enough, property crime in Beverly Hills is through the roof compared to the rest of L.A. and the rest of the country -- up 108% compared to the national average as recently as 2020, which is nuts.

Jay Caspian Kang sees a big problem with lumping every Asian American into one big group ... he says the practice leaves a huge number of folks behind.

The author joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and told us about some of the topics he explores in his new book, "The Loneliest Americans," and why there are inherent problems in putting too many people in the same bucket.

Jay says the Asian American community is extremely diverse, but that same diversity becomes diluted when they're taken as a whole ... and the ones who get left behind or forgotten are those with the fewest resources.

The solution, Jay says, is getting back to celebrating diversity ... and understanding just how different people can be within larger groups, like the Asian American or LGBTQ+ communities.

Brian Laundrie might have been pedaling along a country road -- purposely out of public view -- on a rickety old bike ... that is, if you buy what someone says they see in this video.

Check out this clip, obtained by TMZ, which one witness tells us was shot from a surveillance camera on the outskirts of his property on October 9 in Dunnellon, FL -- a tiny town, about three hours north of Laundrie's hometown of North Port, where his family resides.

We're told there are several acres of rural land behind this guy's property, which is apparently where this footage was taken ... along what we're told is a rugged sugar sand path that hardly anyone ever ventures down ... on foot or anything else.

Weirdly enough, this unidentified guy was cruising down the trail on a bicycle ... and having a difficult time at it, as you can see. He's riding with an oversized backpack on, and heavy clothing ... and in the homeowner's eyes, was trying to lay low.

Add on the fact this mystery man -- at least at first glance -- appears to bear a passing resemblance to Laundrie in the face ... and we might have a legit sighting on our hands.

We're told this video was submitted to the FBI for review, as the property owner felt it was enough of a match to flag it. Then again ... we've seen a lot of these that turn out to be red herrings, and some folks have even had run-ins with the law over a mistaken identity.

A high school football game abruptly ended Friday night after gunfire erupted and 4 people were shot.

Players from Williamson High School were on the field against rival Vigor High School at the Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, when gunfire rang through the stadium, just before 10 PM.

Two of the 4 people shot were minors ... one person is in critical condition.

It's unclear where the shots came from, but it appears the shooter was not on the field or in the stands. As you see from the video, the players dropped to the ground and people in the stands fled ... leaving the stadium in a panic.

The shooter was not apprehended and it's unclear if police have any leads. A witness told cops 2 people and possibly more fled the stadium in a white sedan after the shooting, but it's unclear if they had anything to do with the shooting.

Gabby Petito's grieving parents paid a visit to a place their daughter visited shortly before she was murdered.

Joseph Petito posted a photo of Jenny Lake in Wyoming. The scenery is stunning ... with snowcapped mountains lining the area around a beautiful lake in Grand Teton National Park.

"I now know why you came here," Joseph wrote on Twitter. "#gabbypetito has a beautiful view from now on. Love you, and miss you."

The lake is near where Gabby's body was found. As we reported, the Teton County Coroner concluded Gabby died from manual strangulation sometime around the end of August.

Gabby's parents made the trip to recover her remains, which have been cremated. They're coming back to New York this weekend with the urn.

Brian Laundrie has still not been named a suspect in Gabby's death, although that seems to be more for strategic reasons. He is wanted for fraud, which would allow authorities to arrest him.  He's not been seen for a month, and the area authorities have been searching has not produced a single shred of evidence.

The famous Banksy painting that got shredded after someone bought it for $1.4 million just got sold again at auction ... and it set a record price for the mysterious artist.

The gavel went down Thursday at Sotheby's in London and the piece, called "Love is in the Bid," had a winning bid of $25.4 million. It's a record auction price for a Banksy.

The art includes the original spray-painted image of a girl reaching up for a heart-shaped balloon on canvas, which was famously shredded, hanging halfway out of an ornate frame.

As we reported ... the original painting titled "Girl With Balloon" went for $1.4 million at a Sotheby's auction back in 2018, and once the gavel dropped the canvas slid down the frame, which became a shredder, cutting the work in pieces.

The audience at the OG auction was stunned, and while the buyer was "surprised," they didn't back out of the deal.

It's a good thing they didn't ... because they just got a major return on that investment. That's one way to make a quick $24 mil!!!

Prince William has some harsh words for the Elon Musks, Jeff Bezos' and Richard Bransons of the world ... focus on fixing this planet instead of exploring what else is out there.

The Duke of Cambridge blasted the so-called "billionaire's space race" and space tourism while speaking to BBC Newscast on the same day William Shatner made history by becoming the oldest person ever to go to space.

You can hear the disdain in William's voice while he also pleas with the sharpest minds to allocate their brains and resources to repair planet Earth. He said, "We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live."

It goes without saying ... William, whose Earthshot Prize will award roughly $70m over the next decade to those focused on saving this planet, says he has ZERO interest in taking part in space tourism. In fact ... he tells the interviewer how high he's been as a former pilot himself, and that was good enough for him.

William's shot at space tourism came on the day Captain Kirk and 3 other crew members hopped on Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule and successfully blasted off into space.

The crew experienced 4 minutes of weightlessness before parachuting back down to Earth. Shatner told Bezos it was "the most profound experience" of his life.

Dog the Bounty Hunter hasn't given up his hunt for Brian Laundrie -- he's got one more vital person to speak with -- and he's en route to her now.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... Dog has NOT left Florida yet -- despite injuring his ankle earlier this week -- and is still working leads. We're told he's currently headed to the home of Laundrie's sister, Cassie, with whom he will attempt to discuss the case.

Earlier this month ... Cassie confronted a group of protesters outside her Florida home and told them she doesn't have the slightest clue where Brian's hiding, but added she wasn't sure if her parents had anything to do with his disappearance.

Our sources say Dog is still hobbling around on that bum ankle, but wants to make sure he's tried every possible avenue to locate Laundrie ... before heading to Colorado to get checked out by his doctor. As we reported, Dog hurt his ankle a couple of days ago in rugged terrain.

The Cassie meeting would come just a day after an autopsy report revealed Gabby Petito died by strangulation. The Teton County Coroner estimated the time she was killed might have been 3 to 4 weeks before her remains were found.

Gabby's family is heading to Wyoming to retrieve her body, and have her cremated.

Life has officially imitated art as William Shatner made history by becoming the oldest person ever to go to space.

Captain Kirk and crew hopped on Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule Wednesday morning and successfully blasted off into space ... never mind a couple of delays due to "vehicle readiness." Shatner himself said he got more nervous with each delay.

The 90-year-old and the other 3 crew members experienced 4 minutes of weightlessness before the capsule ultimately parachuted and landed safely in the west Texas desert at exactly 9:59 AM CT. Shatner gave a thumbs up before exiting the capsule.

Jeff Bezos opened the hatch, poked his head inside the capsule and greeted the newest astronauts. Shatner was second to exit and he said "Wow" before hugging Bezos.

Shatner started describing his experience to Bezos but he was briefly interrupted when Bezos popped open a bottle of champagne. Shatner turned down the bubbly. He later became visibly emotional and poetically described the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

He said, "What you have given me is the most profound experience I could imagine. I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. It’s extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this. I hope I maintain what I feel now. I don’t want to lose it. It’s so much larger than me, and life." Shatner also urged Bezos to make this experience widely available ... even if it means using 3D technology.

Shatner's crew included Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations Audrey Powers, former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen and software mogul Glen de Vries.

We got our first look of Shatner in the space suit moments before liftoff ... and though the suit wasn't as silky smooth as what he wore on the Enterprise all those years ago, he still looked pretty damn good. He's seriously 90?!?!

Bezos drove the space travelers to the launch site in a Rivian electric pickup truck, Shatner was stuck with the middle seat, but didn't seem to care.

Shatner became the oldest person to ever go up into space ... beating out 82-year-old test pilot Wally Funk ... who joined Bezos, his brother, Mark, and recent HS grad Oliver Daemen, when they took Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule up for its premiere launch in July.

As you'll recall ... that initial crew went up to space for about 15 minutes, reached an altitude of 66.5 miles, floated around for a bit in zero-gravity while playing with ping-pong balls ... then came back down for safe landing.

Shatner's civilian flight will be very similar, but our sources say the mission will be also filmed for a documentary. Any moment now we'll have video of Shatner & co. inside the capsule.

William Shatner's space flight won't take a toll on his body despite his age ... so says Neil deGrasse Tyson who explained why, by dropping some serious science knowledge.

The famed astrophysicist tells TMZ ... he's not worried about the fact Capt. Kirk's all of 90 years old and off to space Wednesday morning. He says the kind of space flight Blue Origin's designed to take is not like the old days where astronauts needed strenuous physical training.

So, what's changed? Neil explains it's not even about advances in the spacecraft itself ... it's more about where the New Shepard capsule ends up.

He says the bottom line is ... Captain Kirk should have a cakewalk of a "mission" to space. As for being weightless up there -- Neil says it's not the lack of gravity Shatner needs to worry about, but the opposite.

TMZ broke the story ... William will be part of the second crew to take the space flight ... making him the oldest person ever to be launched into space.

He'll be joined by Chris Boshuizen, founder of Earth-observation company Planet Labs, microbiologist Glen de Vries and Blue Origin's Audrey Powers. They're scheduled to launch at 10 AM ET from West Texas ... and TMZ will be streaming live.

Southwest Airlines blames weather and tower issues for nearly 2,000 of their flights getting nixed this weekend -- but many think the real reason is ... a pilot strike over vaccines.

Here's the deal ... upwards of 1,800 SA flights (and counting) were straight-up canceled between Saturday and Sunday all over the country -- leaving even more would-be passengers stranded or without air travel for the holiday weekend.

Southwest has said poor weather conditions in FL and subsequent air traffic control roadblocks there were responsible for the mass cancelations -- but the FAA pushed back, admitting Friday was a bit of a mess in Jacksonville ... but noting Saturday/Sunday seemed fine. Other airlines also reported significantly less cancelations over the same time period.

So ... what gives??? It appears somebody's not being forthright on why so many Southwest flights continue to stay grounded -- but there's a theory that might have some credence.

On Friday, Southwest's pilot union filed legal docs seeking to halt a vaccine mandate that went into effect last week -- following Biden's order for federal workers and/or contractors, which applies to the airline. That was left unresolved heading into the weekend, it seems.

While Southwest hasn't spoken on a possible strike ... the union itself shot down the notion they were to blame, saying ... "[W]e can say with confidence that our Pilots are not participating in any official or unofficial job actions." Then ... some major shade.

They add... "Our Pilots will continue to overcome SWA management’s poor planning, as well as any external operational challenges, and remain the most productive Pilots in the world."

On the record, they're denying any sort of protest -- but there are reports, citing airline sources, that a massive "sickout" went down, and that ripple effects are still being felt.

A crazed gunman on an alleged crime spree in L.A. ended his trail of terror by taking a woman hostage -- only to be killed by cops who stormed in ... all of which is on video.

LAPD says this guy was on a criminal tear before fleeing into the Santa Fe Loft & Apartments high-rise building in downtown Friday ... running into a lady in the halls as police were hot on his trail, and forcing her into her unit at gunpoint -- barricading himself inside.

From there, a tense standoff unfolded -- but even prior to what you see on video here -- captured by another DTLA resident from across the way -- cops say the gunman was running amok on the streets ... allegedly shooting folks in a business, trying to carjack someone and even attempting to shoot someone in the head, with the gun failing to go off.

Like we said, this was his final stop -- and as you can see ... it was truly life or death, as the guy clearly appears to have had his own gun at her head while she was on her knees.

Helicopters were zooming ... and within minutes, a SWAT team was at the door, trying to negotiate with the man -- but ultimately decided to bust in and take control of the sitch, which they did. Luckily, the victim was unharmed as they unloaded their weapons on him.

She'd been moved to another area of the apartment, and was taken to a hospital afterward for an evaluation. Considering the violence this man is alleged to have inflicted before this ... it's a miracle the woman was left relatively unscathed, and walked away with her life intact.

The cops explained their actions on Twitter ... saying that based on what they'd been told the man had already done and the dire nature of the moment -- in addition to what they themselves were seeing via surveillance -- SWAT decided to take action ... and an officer-involved shooting occurred, killing the suspect on the scene.

Bet ya didn't see this coming ... MLB legend Pete Rose -- banned from baseball for life for wagering on the game -- has launched a sports gambling podcast!!

The 17-time All-Star broke the news on Thursday, announcing he's exclusively teaming up with Quake Media to offer betting tips and picks on his show, "Pete Rose Daily Picks."

"It's a show featuring my picks and breakdowns of games, not just baseball," Rose says, "I'll be talking football, basketball, horse racing, golf and a lot of more."

The show debuts tonight ... and will air 6 days a week with sports betting broadcaster Ben Wilson.

“I’ll share how I think about games with Ben and the fans, then we can watch and learn together," the 80-year-old says.

"There are some insights, I believe, that only an old guy like me may think of. I'm excited to share my winning predictions with my fans."

Of course, it's ironic since Charlie Hustle received a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 for gambling as a player and manager for the Cincinnati Reds.

Rose, who adamantly denied wagering on baseball (a cardinal sin in the game) for many years, ultimately copped to the allegation -- though he remains steadfast that he NEVER bet against his club.

But, Pete says don't call it a gambling podcast, telling USA Today he ain't gambling, saying ... "It's handicapping. I'm a handicapper."

"All I'm doing is lending my expertise to people who want to bet."

Want a little taste of Pete's expertise?? Here are his picks for tonight's action.

-White Sox vs. Astros, OVER 7.5 runs
-Tampa Bay Rays money line against Boston Red Sox in game 1 (-150)
-Los Angeles Rams (-2.5) vs. Seattle Seahawks