Los Angeles (CNN) -- Rodney King, whose beating by
Los Angeles police in 1991 was caught on camera and sparked riots after
the acquittal of the four officers involved, was found dead in his
swimming pool Sunday, authorities and his fiancee confirmed. He was 47.
Police in Rialto,
California, received a 911 call from King's fiancee, Cynthia Kelly,
about 5:25 a.m., said Capt. Randy DeAnda. Responding officers found King
at the bottom of the pool, removed him and attempted to revive him. He
was pronounced dead at a local hospital, DeAnda said.
There were no preliminary
signs of foul play, he said, and no obvious injuries on King's body.
Police are conducting a drowning investigation, DeAnda said, and King's
body would be autopsied.
"His fiancee heard him in
the rear yard," he said, and found King in the pool when she went
outside.King's beating after a
high-speed car chase and its aftermath forever changed Los Angeles, its
police department and the dialogue on race in America.
King was 25 and on parole
after a robbery conviction in April 1991. In an interview in 2011, he
recalled he had been drinking and was headed home from a friend's house
when he saw a police car following him and panicked, thinking he would
be sent back to prison. So he attempted to flee.
"I had a job to go to
that Monday, and I knew I was on parole, and I knew I wasn't supposed to
be drinking, and I'm like 'Oh, my God,'" he told CNN.

He realized he couldn't
outrun the police, but looked for a public place to stop. "I saw all
those apartments over there, so I said, 'I'm gonna stop right there,'"
he said. "'If it goes down, somebody will see it.'"
An amateur cameraman
caught the scene as four white police officers struck King more than 50
times with their wooden batons and used a stun gun on him.
King said as the
officers beat him, they yelled, "We are going to kill you, n***er,"
although the officers denied using racial slurs.
The video shows King
cowering on the ground and attempting to crawl away as he is surrounded
by a crowd of police officers. Four of them used their nightsticks to
strike him.
King was beaten nearly
to death. Three surgeons operated on him for five hours.
The video of the beating
appeared on national television two days later, focusing attention on
the issue of racially-motivated police brutality.
"We finally caught the
Loch Ness Monster with a camcorder," King attorney Milton Grimes said.
Four LAPD officers --
Theodore Briseno, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey Koon --
were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive
use of force by a police officer.
But following a
three-month trial in the predominantly white Los Angeles suburb of Simi
Valley, three of the officers were acquitted of all charges. The jury,
which had no white members, deadlocked on one charge of excessive force
against Powell, and a mistrial was declared on that charge.
Powell's attorney,
Michael Stone, said earlier this year the unedited video worked against
King and helped prove the officers' case.
"Most of the nation only
saw a few snippets where it's the most violent," Stone said. "They
didn't see (King) get up and run at Powell."
But African-Americans in
Los Angeles exploded in outrage. Rioters ran through the streets --
looting businesses, torching buildings and attacking those who were in
the wrong place at the wrong time. The violence was responsible for more
than 50 deaths and $1 billion in property damage.
On the third day of
rioting, King emerged from seclusion to make a plea: "People, I just
want to say, can we all get along? Can we get along?"
The violence ceased, but
the debate did not.
Nearly a year later, the
four officers stood trial in federal court on civil rights charges. Two
African-Americans were picked for the jury, and King testified. He
hedged, however, on whether police used racial slurs during the beating.
He told CNN in 2011 that slurs were used, but said he vacillated on the
stand because his mother had told him to avoid talking about race.
Koon and Powell were
found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison. Briseno and Wind were
acquitted.
"It was like ... I just
hope we just get one," King said. "I hope we just get one on that. If we
get one, we're good. So to get the two, I was really happy."
King also sued the city
of Los Angeles and was awarded $3.8 million in damages.