LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991
videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for
one of the most destructive race riots in the nation’s history, was
found at the bottom of his swimming pool early Sunday and later
pronounced dead. He was 47.
King’s fiancée called 911 at 5:25 a.m. to report that she found him
in the pool at their home in Rialto, Calif., police Lt. Dean Hardin
said.
Officers arrived to find King in the deep end of the pool and pulled him out.
King was unresponsive, and officers began CPR until paramedics
arrived. King was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at
6:11 a.m., police said.
Police Capt. Randy De Anda said King had been by the pool throughout
the early morning and had been talking to his fiancee, who was inside
the home at the time. A statement from police said the preliminary
investigation indicates a drowning, with no signs of foul play.
Investigators will await autopsy results to determine whether drugs
or alcohol were involved, but De Anda said there were no alcoholic
beverages or paraphernalia found near the pool.
Authorities didn’t identify the fiancée. King earlier said he was
engaged to Cynthia Kelley, one of the jurors in the civil rights case
that gave King $3.8 million in damages.
The 1992 riots, which were set off by the acquittals of the officers
who beat King, lasted three days and left 55 people dead, more than
2,000 injured and swaths of Los Angeles on fire. At the height of the
violence, King pleaded on television: “Can we all get along?”
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