Rodney King, the man whose brutal beating by Los Angeles police sparked one of the worst race riots in US history, was today found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool.
The 47-year-old was discovered at his home in in Rialto, California, by his fiancée Cynthia Kelley, at around 5.25am.
She allegedly told friends he had been drinking all day and had also smoked marijuana.
She called 911 and officers arrived to find King still in the water.
They dived in still wearing their uniforms to recover the body of the man who had become a symbol of racial tensions and police brutality in America
CPR was performed on the scene but he was pronounced dead at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center at 6.11am.
Ms Kelley, one of the jurors in the civil rights case that gave King $3.8 million in damages, is understood to have told friends he had been drinking all day and had also smoked marijuana.
According to TMZ, she was woken by the sound of him screaming in the back yard.
She said that he was naked and banging on the glass.
When she asked him what was wrong, the divorced father-of-three did not respond. Shortly afterwards she heard a splash and went out to discover him in the swimming pool.
There were conflicting reports but police were conducting an investigation based on the theory that he had drowned.
Police Captain Randy DeAnda said that they would await autopsy results to determine whether drugs or alcohol were involved.
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Untimely death: Rodney King, pictured in the swimming pool at his Californian home, was found dead at the bottom of it today
Mysterious: The swimming pool at Rodney King's house in Rialto, California where he died this morning
He added that no alcoholic beverages or paraphernalia found near the pool.
‘Preliminarily, there do not appear to be any signs of foul play,’ he said
Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that King was a symbol of the civil and anti-police brutality movement.
‘Through all that he had gone through with his beating and his personal demons he was never one to not call for reconciliation and for people to overcome and forgive,’
Sharpton wrote. ‘History will record that it was Rodney King's beating and his actions that made America deal with the excessive misconduct of law enforcement.’
RIP Rodney King began trending on Twitter soon after the news broke with public figures and celebrities leading the tributes.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson, wrote: 'Saddened by the passing of Rodney King. I'd know him over the years & when I interviewed him recently, His life seemed to be on a high note.'
Rapper Wiz Khalifa, who is engaged to model Amber Rose, put on his Twitter page: '#RIP Rodney King. #Retweet for Respect.'
King's name became known around the world after he was savagely beaten by LAPD officers following a high-speed car chase prompted by his refusal to pull over on March 3, 1991.
The attack was secretly videotaped by a bystander George Holliday, who passed the tape on to a TV station.
King, then 25, was hit more than 50 times with wooden batons and shocked with a stun gun.
He said as the officers beat him, they yelled, 'We are going to kill you, n*****'.
King almost died after the attack and only survived after five hours of surgery.
But it was the aftermath of the beating that made it one of the most notorious incidents in US history.
Four officers Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koon were brought to trial in 1992.
The court case had been moved to the predominantly white suburb of Simi Valley, California and on April 29, and no member of the jury was black.
Three of the officers was were acquitted while a mistrial was declared for the fourth.
The verdict sent shock waves across the world and prompted catastrophic riots which lasted three days, left 55 dead, more than 2,000 injured and swaths of LA on fire.
As the city was ripped apart by crowds who looted businesses, torched buildings and attacked one another, King made a personal plea for peace.
‘People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?’ he asked on the third day of rioting, going off script from the statement planned by his lawyers.
The riots caused more than one billion dollars of damage.
King went on to successfully sue the LAPD, Koon and Powell , two of the officers involved in his beating, were eventually found guilty of civil rights violations in federal court and sent to prison. The other two were acquitted again.
Despite the payout, King’s life has been deeply troubled.
‘Preliminarily, there do not appear to be any signs of foul play,’ he said
Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that King was a symbol of the civil and anti-police brutality movement.
‘Through all that he had gone through with his beating and his personal demons he was never one to not call for reconciliation and for people to overcome and forgive,’
Sharpton wrote. ‘History will record that it was Rodney King's beating and his actions that made America deal with the excessive misconduct of law enforcement.’
Tragic: Rodney King was filmed for an interview body boarding in his swimming pool
On the scene: Rialto police stand in front of the home where the body of Rodney King was found today
The Reverend Jesse Jackson, wrote: 'Saddened by the passing of Rodney King. I'd know him over the years & when I interviewed him recently, His life seemed to be on a high note.'
Rapper Wiz Khalifa, who is engaged to model Amber Rose, put on his Twitter page: '#RIP Rodney King. #Retweet for Respect.'
King's name became known around the world after he was savagely beaten by LAPD officers following a high-speed car chase prompted by his refusal to pull over on March 3, 1991.
Past impacting pressent: Rapper Wiz Khalifa tweeted about the death of the man whose beating prompted the LA riots
Keeping it short: Tennis star Serena Williams only said a few words about the man's passing
King, then 25, was hit more than 50 times with wooden batons and shocked with a stun gun.
He said as the officers beat him, they yelled, 'We are going to kill you, n*****'.
King almost died after the attack and only survived after five hours of surgery.
But it was the aftermath of the beating that made it one of the most notorious incidents in US history.
Four officers Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koon were brought to trial in 1992.
Grief: The daughters of Rodney King, Lora (pictured left) and Candice (center), weep as they visit the home of their father where he was found dead this morning
Distress: Relatives of Rodney King react to his death outside his home in Rialto, California which has been cordoned off by police
Investigation: Detectives were at the scene following the death of Rodney King who is believed to have drowned
Tribute: The Reverend Al Sharpton, center, walks with demonstrators during a silent march to end the 'stop-and-frisk program in New York. He said King always called for reconciliation
Three of the officers was were acquitted while a mistrial was declared for the fourth.
The verdict sent shock waves across the world and prompted catastrophic riots which lasted three days, left 55 dead, more than 2,000 injured and swaths of LA on fire.
As the city was ripped apart by crowds who looted businesses, torched buildings and attacked one another, King made a personal plea for peace.
‘People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?’ he asked on the third day of rioting, going off script from the statement planned by his lawyers.
The riots caused more than one billion dollars of damage.
King went on to successfully sue the LAPD, Koon and Powell , two of the officers involved in his beating, were eventually found guilty of civil rights violations in federal court and sent to prison. The other two were acquitted again.
Despite the payout, King’s life has been deeply troubled.
Savage: King was beaten by LAPD officers after he failed to pull over in his car
Brutally beaten: King was pictured three days after being attacked by members of the LAPD
He had spent a stint in rehab, worked as a record company executive and was on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab last year. He had latterly reinvented himself as a boxer.
‘Even now, I walk into a place wondering what people are thinking. Do they know who I am? What do they think about what happened? Do they blame me for the all those people who died?’
King was arrested in 2005 for making threats to kill his daughter and his daughter's mother after the two women got into an argument with his then-girlfriend.
LA in flames: The four white police officers were declared innocent of beating Rodney King sparking the LA riots in 1992
Armed and dangerous: The Los Angeles riots were the deadliest in the city's history. Some 55 people died and thousands were injured in the violence and looting
Smouldering: The city of Los Angeles was left with $1 billion damage after the riots in 1992
In November 2007, he was treated in hospital after an incident in which he was shot and wounded in the face, back and upper torso, in the Los Angeles suburb of San Bernardino.
He described how FBI agents had warned him a riot was expected if the officers were acquitted, and urged him to keep a low profile so as not to inflame passions.
Speaking ahead of the 20th anniversary of the riots, King said racism still has to be challenged. He published a memoir, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption," to mark the anniversary
But in an interview earlier this year, he said that he was a happy man.
‘America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all,’ he says. ‘This part of my life is the easy part now.’
Attackers: From left to right, Sgt Stacey Koon, Theodore Briseno, Timothy Wind and Laurence Powell in their police booking photographs in 1991
Rodney Glen King was 25 years old when he became the symbol of race issues in America.
On March 2, 1991, King and two passengers were driving home after having spent the evening at a friend's house drinking and watching basketball.
At 12.30am, two police officers spotted King speeding in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. According to King, he refused to pull over as he was on parole for a previous robbery conviction and a DUI charge would have violated this.
He was pursued through residential areas by several police cars and a helicopter before being cornered.
After stopping his two passengers Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms were arrested without incident.
King was reportedly two times over the drink-drive limit at this point.
Victim: Rodney King, pictured in 1992, at a press conference where he called for an end to the violence during the LA riots
King stayed in the car and when he did emerge, acted strangely. One officer ordered him to the ground at gunpoint.
Sergeant Koon told the officer to step back while Briseno, Powell, Solano, and Wind attempted to arrested King who resisted. He was Tasered in the back and fell to his knees.
George Holliday, who heard the commotion in the street, started rolling a videotape from a distance. King is filmed on the ground, surrounded by the police officers. They then use their night sticks to repeatedly beat King with so-called 'power strokes'.
King received 56 blows from the batons and six kicks before being handcuffed and having his legs restrained. He was dragged to the side of the road to wait for an ambulance.
King was taken to Pacifica Hospital having suffered '11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken (bones and teeth), kidney damage, emotional and physical trauma', according to the lawsuit he later filed.
Mr Holliday took the tape he made to the LAPD who ignored him. His next stop was KTLA television which broadcast the secret footage and led to accusations that the police were racist and excessively violent.
Its broadcast led to outrage, and charges against the police officers.
The following year the officers were acquitted by a predominantly white jury. Anger over the decision sparked the LA riots that left 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.
During a news conference at the time of the riots, King poignantly pleaded, 'Can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids?'
In the years since, King has been arrested numerous times, mainly for alcohol-related crimes, and has made several attempts at rehabilitation, including an appearance on television's Celebrity Rehab.
He received a $3.8 million settlement from the city, but recently said much of that money was lost to bad investments.
This past spring King was on a book tour promoting his memoir, The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption.
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