Rodney King Found Dead in His Swimming Pool

by Frederick H. Lowe
Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by the Los Angeles police was shown on television sets across America, ending any doubts about how the police often treat black men in custody, was found dead on Sunday, June 17, in his swimming pool.

Rialto, Calif., police discovered the 47-year-old King, an avid swimmer, at the bottom of his pool after receiving a 911-call at 5:25 a.m. from his fiancée, Cynthia Kelly, a Rialto police department spokesperson, told The NorthStar News & Analysis.

The responding officers pulled King from the pool and attempted to revive him. A fire department ambulance rushed King to Arrowhead Regional Hospital in Colton, Calif., where physicians pronounced him dead at 6:11 a.m., the police spokesperson said. There were no signs of foul play.

Rodney Glen King, who was born on April 2, 1965, in Sacramento, Calif., and grew up in Altadena, Calif., burst into the nation's consciousness on March 3, 1991, when George Holliday, an innocent bystander who was on the balcony of his apartment, filmed seven Los Angeles cops viciously beating King with their nightsticks as he lay on the ground. King used his hands and arms to protect his head and body as police rained down repeated bone-breaking blows (see video).

Police stopped King, and his two passengers, Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, following a chase through a residential neighborhood. After eight miles, police officers Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Roland Solando cornered King's car.

Police ordered the three men to lie face down on the ground, but King got to his feet.  Koon used a taser gun to shoot King. He lunged forward.  Using his baton, Powell belted King several times in the head, knocking him to the ground.  King rose to his knees, and Powell and Wind continue to hit him with their batons. Police hit him 56 times on his knees, elbows, wrist, and ankles before handcuffs were used to restrain his arms and legs. Police dragged King face down to the side of the road to wait for an ambulance.  It drove King to Pacifica Hospital, where physicians determined that he suffered fractured facial bones and a broken right ankle.

Holiday called the police about his videotape of the beating, but they dismissed him. He then took the videotape to KTLA, a Los Angeles television station, which broadcast the entire tape. It was aired thousands of times around the world.

King sued Los Angeles, settling for $3.8 million. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles district attorney charged the cops with excessive force. Terry White, an African American, was the prosecutor. After a trial in Simi Valley, Calif., a jury of 10 whites, a Hispanic and an Asian, on April 29, 1992, acquitted three of the cops, but they could not agree one of the charges against Powell.

The acquittals triggered seven days of rebellion, mostly in Los Angeles. The city's businesses suffered nearly $1 billion in financial losses. Flare-ups also broke out in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Atlanta.

After the rebellion, the United States Justice Department indicted four of the officers on federal civil-rights violations. A jury convicted Powell and Koon, but Briseno and Wind were acquitted of all charges. A judge sentenced Powell and Koon to 32 months in prison.

In April, HarperOne published King's memoir, The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. King wrote about his struggle to overcome substance abuse. He appeared on the television series “Celebrity Rehab.”

Amazon.com, which is selling King's memoir, has called it a “criminal biography.”