Rodney King was found dead this morning in his Rialito, California home, he was just 47-years-old. King’s body was discovered by his fiancée at the bottom of a pool.
Police responded to a call at 5:25 AM PT and when they arrived on the scene they removed King’s body and tried to perform CPR. King was pronounced dead at 6:11 AM.
King rose to fame after he was brutally attacked by a group of police officers in 1991, that attack was captured on video and led to a nationally televised court room battle. The officers involved in the beating were acquitted the next year, a court decision that led to massive rioting in Los Angeles. Two of the officers were later found guilty of civil rights violations during a federal court hearing and were jailed.
The sad news of King’s death comes just two months after he spoke with TMZ , an interview that seemed to show a positive man who was forwarding looking about his life. In one interview King had even proclaimed “America has been good to me.” King had begun opening up more in 2011 about the incident that led to his beating 20 years earlier, admitting that he had been drinking when he was pulled over and had panicked for fear that he would be sent back to prison where he had already served a term for robbery.
During one 2011 interview Rodney King told CNN :
“I had a job to go to that Monday, and I knew I was on parole, and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be drinking, and I’m like ‘Oh, my God.””
The Rialto police department will officially open a drowning investigation.
In the meantime here is the now infamous beating video of Rodney King:
[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/0w-SP7iuM6k” width=”480? height=”360?]
Our condolences go out to his family and friends during their time of loss.