Lieutenant Fred Corral said Jackson, 50, was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm (2126 GMT) local time after reportedly suffering a cardiac arrest.
"I can tell you at this time that we were notified by West Los Angeles Police Department detectives that Mr Jackson was transported ... to the hospital, and upon admitting, he was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at approximately 2:26 this afternoon," Corral said.
Corral said an autopsy would "most likely" be carried out on Friday but would not speculate on the exact cause of death.
"Everything is still ongoing. We will be responding to the hospital to move Mr Jackson to our facility where he will be examined to determine the cause of death," Corral said.
"As far as I'm aware, we were notified by LAPD detectives that Mr Jackson was brought in by paramedics to the hospital in full cardiac arrest and then he was later pronounced dead."
"At that point, as I said, there's no further medical history until we get and review the medical records."
Tears flowed outside a hospital as hundreds of Michael Jackson fans gathered to mourn the loss of the music legend, stunned by his sudden death at the age of 50.
"Right today I can't believe we might have lost the best entertainer this world has ever seen," sobbed Lana Brown, 49, from Dallas, overcome with emotion as she struggled to come to terms with the news.
Brown, who described herself "as the biggest Jackson fan ever" was on holiday with her family in Los Angeles when her friend phoned to tell her that Jackson had collapsed and was being treated at the UCLA hospital.
Like hundreds of others, she made her way to the hospital, hoping against hope that Jackson, whose music and dance thrilled generations of fans, would pull through.
"I left my office. Everyone should. It's so shocking. Because you think someone like Michael Jackson will live forever, like Peter Pan," Yoshiko Plair, clasping a sunflower for her icon, said.
The 49-year-old real estate agent heard the news, like so many others, via a text message on her phone when she was in the bank.
Dropping her business, she rushed home, put on her "Thriller" T-shirt and hustled her sister and two children to the hospital to stand vigil.
"He changed music, he's the reason all that black music is on MTV now," Plair said. "I followed him from that first song. I'm going to mourn him today and probably for the rest of my life."
She added she was going to stay until the hospital officially announced Jackson's death. "I want to hear with my own ears, I can't believe it until I hear it myself.
Student Ashley Leon, 20, also decided to come after hearing of the news of Jackson's collapse.
"I called my room mate who is the extreme Michael Jackson fan because, you know, this is one of the biggest things we'll live through in our lives. We all grew up with his music."
The crowd swelled through the afternoon in the bright summer sunshine waiting for news of their hero.
And most of them brushed off the past scandals that had blighted Jackson's life, after he was charged with and then acquitted of child-molestation.
"You know Michael Jackson has his stuff going on. You knew he's crazy. But he's Michael Jackson," said Leon.
While Brown was more emphatic saying: "All of that did not matter to me because I knew it wasn't true."
Jackson was preparing to make a keenly anticipated concert comeback in London, his first series of shows in more than a decade and the first since his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.
However those concerts -- billed as the "final curtain" -- had been thrown into doubt after Jackson pushed back the opening dates last month.
Organizers of the concerts at the time stressed the delay was not linked to Jackson's health.
In a press conference from the United States broadcast over the Internet, AEG Live president Randy Phillips was asked about Jackson's health and said: "I would trade my body for his tomorrow. He's in fantastic shape."
While Jackson reigned as the "King of Pop" in the 1980s, his once-stellar career had been overshadowed by his colourful public behaviour, his startling physical transformation and multiple allegations of child abuse.
Jackson lived as a virtual recluse following his 2005 acquittal on charges including child molestation and plotting to kidnap his young accuser.
Despite his acquittal, the trial was a body blow from which the pop music superstar struggled to recover.
Four years later, Jackson is still worshipped by fans for revolutionizing music, dance and music videos at the peak of his success.
The attention however paid to him in recent years has been less flattering, focusing on apparent cosmetic surgery -- which he denies -- his baby dangling antics and a decade of swirling child abuse allegations.
Born on August 29, 1958, Jackson made his show business debut with four of his older brothers in the Jackson Five pop group, and went on to lead the stage clan with a piping soprano and dazzling dance moves
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By 1969, the group had signed a contract with Motown Records, becoming one of the last great acts to emerge from the legendary label.
The Jacksons produced seven platinum singles for Motown, selling over a million, and three multi-platinum albums, selling more than two million. They moved to CBS's Epic Records in 1976.
Despite the early success, Jackson was to recall those years as unhappy and lonely ones. Eventually the family act broke up, as Jackson went solo.
In 1979, Quincy Jones produced Jackson's first solo album for Epic, "Off the Wall," a huge disco-oriented success that sold 10 million copies.
They teamed up again in 1982 for what would be Jackson's breakthrough album as a composer and co-producer, "Thriller," which became the top-selling album of all time, with sales exceeding 41 million.
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