Rodney Glen King
Ronald and Odessa King.
He was an American taxi driver who became known as the victim of Los Angeles Police Department brutality.
King's father died had been a violent alcoholic, whom died in 1984 at the age of 42.
As a teenager, King had a daughter with his girlfriend Carmen Simpson.
He later married Danetta Lyles and had another daughter.
King and Lyles divorced and he later married and fathered a daughter with Crystal Waters.
This marriage also ended in divorce
November 3, 1989, King robbed a store in Monterey Park, California.
He threatened the Korean store owner with an iron bar.
He hit him with a wooden pole and stole two hundred dollars in cash during the robbery.
He was caught, convicted, and sentenced to two years imprisonment.
He was released on December 27, 1990, after serving one year in prison.
March 3, 1991, early morning, King, with his friends Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were driving a 1987 Hyundai Excel/Mitsubishi Precis west on the Foothill Freeway in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
The three had spent the night watching basketball and drinking at a friend's house in Los Angeles.
Husband-and-wife members of the California Highway Patrol, officers Tim and Melanie Singer, noticed King's car speeding on the freeway around 12:30 a.m.
They pursued King, reaching high speeds.
King refused to pull over.
King later admitted he tried to outrun the police because a charge of driving under the influence would violate his parole for his previous robbery conviction.
King left the freeway near the Hansen Dam Recreation Center.
The chase continued through residential streets at speeds up to 80 miles per hour.
Several police cars and a police helicopter had joined in the pursuit. Officers cornered King in his car near the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street.
The first five Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers to arrive were Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano.
Officer Tim Singer ordered King and his two passengers to exit the vehicle and to lie face down on the ground.
Allen claims he was manhandled, kicked, stomped, taunted, and threatened.
Helms was hit in the head while lying on the ground.
Later he was treated for a laceration on the top of his head.
His bloody baseball cap was turned over to police.
When Kind emerged from the car, he was reported to have been gagged, to have patted the ground, and waved to the police helicopter overhead.
King grabbed his butt, which Officer Melanie Singer took to mean King was reaching for a weapon,
Later he was found to be unarmed.
She drew her pistol and pointed it at King.
She then ordered him to lie on the ground.
Singer approached, gun drawn, preparing to arrest him.
Koon, the ranking officer at the scene, told Singer that the LAPD was taking command and ordered all officers to holster their weapons.
Koon ordered the four other LAPD officers at the scene, Briseno, Powell, Solano, and Wind, to subdue and handcuff King using a technique called a "swarm."
This means, multiple officers grabbing a suspect with empty hands, in order to quickly overcome potential resistance.
As four officers attempted to restrain King, King stood up to remove Officers Powell and Briseno from his back.
The officers later testified that they believed King was under the influence of phencyclidine (PCP)
King's toxicology tested negative for the drug.
Koon tasered Kind twice.
King is seen on the ground.
He rises and rushes toward Powell and King and Powell collided in the rush.
King is knocked to the ground when officer Powell strikes King with his baton.
Powell strikes King several more times.
Briseno moves in, attempting to stop Powell from striking again.
Powell stands back.
Koon reportedly said, "That's enough."
King rises again, to his knees;
Powell and Wind hit him with their batons.
Koon reportedly directed Powell and Wind to strike King with "power strokes."
Powell and Wind used "bursts of power strokes, then backed off." The officers beat King, who was already subdued.
King continues to try to stand again. Koon orders the officers to "hit his joints, hit the wrists, hit his elbows, hit his knees, hit his ankles."
Officers Wind, Briseno, and Powell attempted numerous baton strikes on King, resulting with 33 blows hitting King, plus six kicks.
The officers again "swarm" King, this time a total of eight officers are involved.
King is placed in handcuffs and cordcuffs, so his arms and legs are restrained.
King is dragged on his abdomen to the side of the road to await the arrival of emergency medical rescue.
King was taken to Pacifica Hospital, where he was found to have suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle, and multiple bruises and lacerations.
In a negligence claim filed with the city, King alleged he had suffered "11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken bones and teeth, kidney failure and emotional and physical trauma".
Blood and urine samples taken from King five hours after his arrest showed that he was intoxicated under California law at the time of his arrest.
The tests also showed traces of marijuana.
Hospital nurses reported that the officers who accompanied King openly joked and bragged about the number of times they had hit King.
A videotape was released of several police officers beating him during his arrest on March 3, 1991.
George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony.
Two days later, Holliday called LAPD headquarters to let the police department know that he had videotaped the incident, but he could not find anyone who was interested in seeing the video. so he
sent the footage to a local news station.
The station cut ten seconds of the video, so that it showed an extremely blurry shot of King charging at the officers.
Later members of the jury said that this cut footage was essential to their decision to acquit the officers.
The unedited footage was broadcast all over the media.
The footage clearly showed King being beaten repeatedly.
The incident was covered by news media around the world.
March 14, 1991, after four days of grand jury testimony, the Los Angeles district attorney charged officers Koon, Powell, Briseno and Wind with use of excessive force.
Sergeant Koon, as the supervisory officer at the scene, charged with "willfully permitting and failing to take action to stop the unlawful assault".
On August 22, 1991, the California Court of Appeal removed the initial judge, Bernard Kamins.
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley created the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, also known as the Christopher Commission, in April 1991 to conduct "a full and fair examination of the structure and operation of the LAPD.
The jury consisted of Ventura County residents: ten white, one Latino, one Asian.
The lead prosecutor Terry White was African American.
On April 29, 1992, the jury acquitted three of the officers but could not agree on one of the charges against Powell
Within hours of the acquittals, the 1992 Los Angeles riots started, sparked by outrage among African Americans over the verdicts and longstanding social issues.
This caused rioting that lasted six days.
63 people were killed and 2,373 were injured.
The chaos ended only after the California Army National Guard, the United States Army, and the United States Marine Corps provided reinforcements to re-establish control.
During the riots, King made a television appearance in which he said,
"I just want to say,you know, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? And... I mean we've got enough smog in Los Angeles let alone to deal with setting these fires and things... it's just not right – it's not right. And it's not going to change anything. We'll get our justice; they've won the battle, but they haven't won the war. We'll get our day in court and that's all we want. And, just, uh, I love – I'm neutral, I love every, I love people of color. I'm not like they're making me out to be. We've got to quit, we've got to quit; I mean after-all, I could understand the first, upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shot on the ground, it's just not right; it's just not right, because those people will never go home to their families again. And uh, I mean please, we can, we can get along here. We all can get along – we just gotta, we gotta. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while, let's, you know let's try to work it out, let's try to beat it, you know, let's try to work it out."
The federal government prosecuted a separate civil rights case, obtaining grand jury indictments for violations by the four officers of King's civil rights.
Their trial in a federal district court ended on April 16, 1993, with two of the officers being found guilty and sentenced to prison.
The other two were acquitted of the charges.
The city of Los Angeles awarded King $3.8 million in damages, in a separate suit.
King struggled to start a business but was not successful.
He was subject to further arrests and convictions for driving violations.
He struggled with alcohol and drug addiction.
He crashed his car into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles, on August 21, 1993.
He was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, fined, and entered a rehabilitation program.
Then he was placed on probation.
He was arrested in July 1995, by Alhambra police after hitting his wife with his car and knocking her to the ground.
He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run.
He was arrested again on August 27, 2003, for speeding and running a red light while under the influence of alcohol.
He failed to yield to police officers and slammed his vehicle into a house, breaking his pelvis.
On November 29, 2007, while riding home on his bicycle, he was shot in the face, arms, and back with pellets from a shotgun.
The attackers were a man and a woman who demanded his bicycle and shot him when he rode away.
In May 2008, he checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California
King worked on his addiction and what he said was lingering trauma of the beating.
King was going to marry Cynthia Kelly, who had been a juror in the civil suit he brought against the City of Los Angeles.
March 3, 2011, the LAPD stopped King for driving erratically and issued him a citation for driving with an expired license.
This arrest led to a February 2012 misdemeanor conviction for reckless driving.
June 17, 2012, Cynthia Kelly found King lying underwater at the bottom of his swimming pool.
She called 911 at about 5:25 a.m.
Responding officers removed King attempted to revive him.
He was transferred by ambulance to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, California and was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:11 a.m.
The police said there did not appear to be any foul play.
August 23, 2012, King's autopsy results were released.
It said that the combination of alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana found in his system were contributing factors.
The conclusion of the report stated: "The effects of the drugs and alcohol, combined with the subject's heart condition, probably precipitated a cardiac arrhythmia, and the subject, incapacitated in the water, was unable to save himself."
So he drowned.
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