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Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images file
Rodney King speaking with fans before presenting his autobiographical book 'The Riot Within...My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption' in Los Angeles.
Rodney King's death was ruled accidental in an autopsy report released Thursday by the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office, which also noted he had marijuana, cocaine and alcohol in his system.
The report summarized the events leading to his June 17 death at age 47 in his backyard pool in Rialto, Calif.
King "was in a state of drug and alcohol induced delirium," according to the coroner's report.
He "either fell or jumped into the swimming pool," the report said. "The effects of the drugs and alcohol, combined with the subject's heart condition, thus incapacitated, was unable to save himself and drowned."
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King's fiancée, Cynthia Kelley, found him in the deep end of the pool at 5:25 a.m. and called 911. She made several attempts to pull him out of the pool but was unable to save him. He was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center where he died.
Rialto police said the preliminary investigation suggested the drowning was accidental and that there were no signs of trauma or foul play.
Kelley told police that King he had been out all weekend with a male friend, but police said at the time they did not know if King and his friend had been partying all night.
During a press conference announcing the death, police technicians could be seen bringing out a marijuana plant from inside King's home.
King was an admitted drug addict and alcoholic and told NBCLosAngeles.com in April he had been managing his addictions.
King was remembered during services led by the Rev. Al Sharpton as a "symbol of forgiveness" who bore the scars of his infamous videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers with dignity.
Sharpton said that King never showed bitterness to the officers who beat him.
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King became famous after his videotaped Lake View Terrace beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was broadcast worldwide, as were photos of his bloodied and bruised face.
Those images became a national symbol of police brutality.
When four officers charged with felony assault on King were acquitted by a jury with no black members, the verdict sparked a riot that lasted for six days and brought U.S. military presence to patrol LA streets.
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During the unrest, which left more than 50 people dead and caused more than $1 billion in property damage, King famously pleaded for peace by asking, "Can we all get along?"
King's words were embroidered on the lid of his casket, next to a portrait of him.
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Leave a Comment:
Oh My!! how are we ever going to function as a society w/o R.K!!!????
Wow, drugs?!! Really!!!! How shocking is that????!!!!!!!
Dude lived a completely screwed up life.
there was chlorine in the pool...chlorine is white...so it is whitie's fault! it has to be right? how could poor innocent rodney be to blame for anything?
maybe his family can sue for millions because whitie surely killed him.
love this story....and love to think back of all the conspiracy theories when he first died about how he wasn't on drugs, was a great swimmer and how white LAPD were responsible because they secretly drowned him.
love it. too funny.
If Rodney King "with his RAP sheet" were to elude the police and take out and Innocent people. Citizens would be calling for the LAP D's head on platter. Come on folks we are not even trying to compare the child in the hoodie texting his girl friend. I mean that Knuckle head should hang! Bottom line. Rodney was not on his way to Sunday school. Anyway rest in peace. Any word on how the guy that had is head caved in is doing?
How is taking to many drugs and drinking to much booze an accident?
i think they mean no one killed him...too many fail to see "selfish" as our own worst enemy, they do not see the spiritual battle for souls that exists with drugs. So it is not an accident but by the same token police and systems and media just see that he was not killed.
During the unrest, which left more than 50 people dead and caused more than $1 billion in property damage, King famously pleaded for peace by asking, "Can we all get along?"//
NOT as long as people rebel against police and law enforcement and the children around them in their own neighborhoods . And as long as some people still believe drugs are not bad, then it will be harder to get along. Peace and sin co exist but without forgiveness and repentance peace cannot live, and therefore many will have a harder time getting along, sin has consequences along with selfish temporal highs. Jesus forgives sin and is Lord and that is all that anyone needs to be saved, and to be thankful , repent and follow Christ, allow His mercy yo renew us, and the grace , and that will develop a love for the Lord that may lead to some peaceful sanctification on our choices and actions.
Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand: their majesty, the majesty peculiar to the human conscience, clings to them in the midst of horror; they are virtues which have one vice, – error. The honest, pitiless joy of a fanatic in the full flood of his atrocity preserves a certain lugubriously venerable radiance. Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who triumphs. Nothing could be so poignant and so terrible as this face, wherein was displayed all that may be designated as the evil of the good. - Victor Hugo
What a loser. I don't know how how one can look up to this guy. He runs from the cops and gets beaten up, which triggers the LA riot , which causes 53 deaths.
A predictable end for one of America's great heroes...
The dickwads tried to spin, how he was such a hero and used his loot to help. But he was in the end, what he was in the beginning. A drughead loser.
Rodney may have been partying with Whitney that night. But wait...I think Whitney died a few weeks earlier. Shoot....blow that theory (no pun intended). But I agree with a few of these comments. I don't think the cops would beat the crap out of someone for being pulled over. Rodney had a long affair with cops and they knew that. He smarted off one too many times and got beat up. Funny thing is that back in the 1970's I used to get pulled over often in my 383 Plymouth RoadRunner and the cops would take my weed and Michelob and let me go. Happened several times. But I was respectful to the cops and they were nice back to me. They only wanted the weed and beer.
He would not have been beaten if he had complied with the officers orders ... I forgot - that's irrelevant. :)
Can't we all just do drugs and alcohol - I mean - get along?
@Meteorman Thank goodness for your good-ness. Get along or get a bong... WHATEVER...Just get out of this blog before you get infected.
figures........waste! i actually felt bad for him, until this!
Rusty,
It is not hate but rather amazement that people have tried to make this man into a hero. What we hate is the number of people who come to his aid when he obviously is a plague to our society. Let him be your neighbor.
Peace out.
The darling of the mass liberal is dead. Unfortunately many more just like him and most live in California.
This whole thing is just very sad to me. Rodney King was a bearer of peace and good will, for the most part. We all have our flaws, and I had more hope for him than this. RIP
Flaws? Like beating multiple wives, multiple DUI's, indecent exposure, getting a young girl prego? Those flaws? Or are those the good will of what you speak?
Tia--peace and goodwill???? Drugs, alcohol, mile long rap sheet, wife and child beatings---What did good ole Rodney ever do that even resembled peace and goodwill? Well, beside going for a swim....
Big surprise there. He probably used the money from his LA police lawsuit to buy lots of drugs.
That's what happens when you're a poly-substance abuser. I've never seen anyone in all my years get that messed up off weed - but alcohol and coke by themselves or together, sure.
How come "significant others" always seen unable to swim?
Ain't drugs great?
Either way, Good Riddance.
Not a surprise. "If I had a son he would be just like Rodney".