Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by police in 1991 sparked the Los Angeles riots, was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday, authorities and his fiancee said. He was 47.
Police said King’s fiancée discovered Rodney King body at the bottom of the swimming pool at their Rialto, Calif., home, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles.
Police in Rialto, California, received a 911 call from King’s fiancee, Cynthia Kelly, about 5:25 a.m., said Capt. Randy De Anda. Responding officers pulled King out of the pool and attempted CPR, but could not revive him.
There were no preliminary signs of foul play, De Anda said, and no obvious injuries on King’s body. Police are conducting a drowning investigation, he said, and King’s body would be autopsied.
King was beaten by four white LAPD officers following a DUI stop on March 3, 1991. Footage captured by an amateur videographer showed the officers hitting King 56 times with wooden batons.
“I just got lucky that night to have the cameras on me,” King said in April, marking the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots. “When I saw the tape, I was so happy that it was on tape and then looking at it, it was like I was in another body. I felt like I had died in that one, and was just watching it.”
The four officers, Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koon, were acquitted of criminal charges, sparking the riots that left 55 people dead. (Koon and Powell were later found guilty of federal civil rights charges and sentenced to 30 months in prison.)
According to TMZ, King was scheduled to compete in a celebrity boxing match against Jose Canseco in August.