LOS ANGELES (AP) — An autopsy is scheduled for today for Rodney King, who’s beating in Los Angeles in 1991 led to the nation’s worst race riots.
King was found early Sunday at the bottom of the swimming pool at his home in Rialto, Calif. He was 47.
His death is being treated as an apparent drowning, and police say there are no signs of foul play. But they say autopsy results are needed to determine whether drugs or alcohol was a factor.
Police say King was only in the water three to four minutes between the time his fiancée called 911 and when officers pulled him from the pool. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Following King’s 1991 beating by police and the acquittals the following year of three officers and the mistrial of another, King struggled with addiction and repeated arrests. But he recently told The Associated Press in an interview, “America’s been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all.” He said, “This part of my life is the easy part now.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.