Grim end for man who symbolised problem of police brutality
Mr King had left Los Angeles behind, moving an hour east to a home where neighbours would often hear him splashing in the pool late at night.
The physical and emotional scars from the more than 50 baton blows remained, but Mr King struck an upbeat note on his life. “America’s been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all. This part of my life is the easy part now.”
But Mr King was found dead at around 5:30am local time on Sunday at the bottom of his pool. His death at 47 is being treated as an apparent drowning.
However, Captain Randy De Anda said autopsy results would be needed to determine whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.
Mr De Anda said Mr King was only in the water three to four minutes between the time his fiancee called 911 and when officers pulled him from the water. He was pronounced dead shortly after at a nearby hospital.
It was a grim end for Mr King, who symbolised the problem of police brutality and struggled with addiction and repeated arrests.
Long after the $3.8m he had been awarded in a civil case was spent, he would resurface on and off, appearing on Celebrity Rehab or sparring in boxing matches. He spent the last months of his life promoting a memoir he titled The Riot Within: From Rebellion to Redemption.
Sandra Gardea, Mr King’s neighbour said that around 3am, she heard music and someone “really crying, like really deep emotions... like tired or sad, you know? I then heard someone say, ‘okay, please stop. Go inside the house.’ We heard quiet for a few minutes then after that we heard a splash...”
Mr King was 25 and on parole for a robbery conviction when he led police on a high-speed chase in Mar 1991 that ended on a darkened Los Angeles street.
He was finally stopped by four officers who struck him over 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. He was left with 11 skull fractures, a broken eye socket and facial nerve damage.
The violence, captured on tape by a nearby resident, was played over and over, inflaming racial tensions.
