MATT SAYLES/AP
Rodney King in April. He was found dead in a pool on Sunday, according to a report.
Rodney King, whose beating by police led to massive rioting in Los Angeles in 1992, was found dead at the bottom of a pool at his California home on Sunday. He was 47.
King's fiance, Cynthia Kelley, found him in the pool at his home in Rialto, about 55 miles east of Los Angeles, and called police at 5:25 a.m., according to TMZ.
Police pulled King's lifeless body from the pool and attempted to revive him, CNN reported. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 6:11 a.m.
Investigators said it appeared King drowned, and there were no early signs of foul play.
Details about the death were still murky, but sources told TMZ that Kelley said King spent Saturday at the house drinking and smoking marijuana, and that she went to bed without him at 2:00 a.m.
King became an icon of police brutality 20 years ago after he was brutally beaten by a group of LAPD officers after a freeway chase through the San Fernando Valley.
Amateur video of the incident caught the officers raining more than 50 baton blows on King’s crumpled, unarmed body.
Four LAPD officers were acquitted of assault on April 29, 1992, sparking a riot that killed 54 people, led to widespread looting and arson and caused more than $1 billion in damage.
This 1992 photo shows a shopping center engulfed in flames during the riots in Los Angeles. (Reed Saxon/AP)
On the third day of the carnage, King gave a press conference in front of his lawyer's office and made his famous plea, "I just want to say, can we all get along?"
King eventually won $3.8 million from the city after a federal civil right trial that found two officers guilty, but he was broke after blowing it all on houses, a construction business and a record label, he told the Daily News in an April interview.
His life since the beating was checkered by run-ins with the law -- including drunk driving, domestic abuse and hit-and-run charges -- and he publicly battled alcohol and drug addiction on the reality shows "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" and "Sober House."
In 2010, he became engaged to Cynthia Kelley, who sat on the jury of his civil case against the city.
King made headlines again this spring as a commentator on the Trayvon Martin case and released a book in April, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Redemption To Rebellion."
In the April interview, King reflected on the 20 years since the riots and struck a hopeful tone.
"I still suffer from headaches to this day and walk with a limp, but after the beating with me, a lot of things changed," he told The News. "People looked at civil rights and my situation and said it was time for a change. Now we have a black president."
WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO
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