Rodney King found dead at age 47

Source: NewsCore

RIALTO, Calif. -- Rodney King, whose videotaped 1991 beating by Los Angeles police officers led to riots, was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday morning by his fiancee.

King's publishing representative, Suzanne Wickham, confirmed to FOX News Channel that King died Sunday. He was 47.

Police told FOX that officers responded to a call from King's fiancee at their home in Rialto, about 55 miles (88km) east of Los Angeles, at 5:25am local time. She said she found King at the bottom of their swimming pool.

Officers arrived at the scene and pulled King from the pool. He was unresponsive.

Police performed CPR until paramedics arrived and transported him to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11am. 

Police in Rialto listed drowning as the preliminary cause of death. Foul play is not suspected.

An autopsy will be conducted Sunday, according to a statement from the Rialto Police Department.

In a statement Sunday, Rev. Al Sharpton called King "a symbol of civil rights" who "represented the anti-police brutality and anti-racial profiling movement of our time."

On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers after a high-speed car chase, an infamous case of police brutality that was captured on camera by a bystander and broadcast around the world.

Four officers were tried for the assault but were acquitted, a decision that sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

King appeared at a press conference on the third day of the riots and famously appealed, "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"

Sharpton said in his statement that King, "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."

"History will record that it was Rodney King's beating and his actions that made America deal with the excessive misconduct of law enforcement," Sharpton said.