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Coroner finds King drowned while high
Matt Sayles / The Associated Press archives Rodney King's beating led to deadly riots. (CP)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- Rodney King had been drinking and was on drugs when he plunged into a swimming pool and accidentally drowned in June, a coroner's report released Thursday concludes.
King was the black motorist videotaped being severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991. The officers' acquittal triggered the devastating and deadly 1992 Los Angeles riot.
The report confirmed a previous police conclusion that King died by accident, and the case will be closed, Rialto police Capt. Randy DeAnda said. King had long struggled with addiction.
A call from King's fiancée brought police to his Rialto home at 5:30 a.m. on June 17. Officers pulled him from the bottom of the pool, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Cynthia Kelley said she was in bed and woke up to see King at a patio door.
"She described him making grunting and growling sounds and having frothy secretions coming from his mouth," the report states.
When King fell over a planter, Kelley went to call for help. She heard a splash and when she got to the pool, King was face down in the deep end. Kelley couldn't swim and couldn't reach him.
The coroner's report listed the cause of death as drowning "and the contributing cause was combined with ethanol (alcohol) and multiple drug toxicity," DeAnda said. Toxicology tests found King had a blood-alcohol level of .06 and PCP, cocaine and marijuana in his system, he said.
In March 1991, King, then 25, led police on a high-speed chase. After he was stopped, four Los Angeles officers were videotaped hitting him with batons, kicking him and firing stun guns at him. He suffered 11 skull fractures, a broken eye socket and facial nerve damage.
A jury with no black members acquitted three of the officers and a mistrial was declared for the fourth. Within hours, Los Angeles was engulfed in violence and flames. Fifty-five people died, more than 2,000 were injured and more than $1 billion in damage was done.
At the height of the rioting, King made his famous plea for peace, saying, "Can we all get along?"
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 24, 2012 A20
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