Rodney Glen King: April 2, 1965 - June 17, 2012
Rodney Glen King has died at 47. King’s fiancée, Cynthia Kelly (a juror serving at his civil trial), found him at the bottom of his pool early Sunday morning in Rialto, California.
Law enforcement responded to a 911 call at 5:25 a.m. (PST). After King was removed from the pool and attempts at CPR proved useless, he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m. Though he died of an apparent drowning, an autopsy was conducted Monday morning. The results of toxicology tests will return in six to eight weeks. Until that time, no cause of death will be released.
Rialto police say that there were no outward signs of alcohol or drug abuse. And while suicide was investigated as a possibility, this is routine. There is no evidence to support that it was the cause of death.
Rialto police also revealed that King’s next-door neighbors had conflicting reports about what happened during the hours leading up to the drowning.
One neighbor, Sandra Gardea, 31, said that she heard music playing and a man crying in King’s backyard from about 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. She also heard King’s fiancée trying to coax him back into the house. “It wasn’t like an argument,” Gardea said. “She was just saying, Get in the house. Get in the house.” Then there was silence, said Gardea, whose open bedroom window faces King’s house. “A few minutes later, I heard a splash.”
King’s other neighbor, Dee Schnepf, 58, said it was not unusual for King to swim at night or early in the morning, and that “he liked to swim in the dark.” Saddened by his death, like many neighbors, she described King as a private, quite person. “He was so sweet. He’d mow our lawns once a week, and never asked for any money,” Schnepf said. “It’s unbelievable that he’s gone. I feel like he could just walk over at any minute.”
Rodney King emerged from the shadows in 1991 when a private citizen (George Holliday) videotaped his brutal 15-minute beating by officers on the L.A.P.D. It was the videotape seen around the world. Oprah Winfrey spent an entire show grilling her audience about whether the L.A.P.D. used excessive force; as usual, many whites could not see any breaches of authority on the part of law enforcement.
For the head scratchers who never believed the accounts of police brutality as told by countless citizens, men of color in particular, Rodney King’s brutal beating by those who were supposed to serve and protect finally opened their eyes.
But, unfortunately, not the eyes of justice.
The officers involved in the incident were acquitted of the brutal beating. Days of civil unrest ensued in 1992. The seemingly unjust and outrageous verdict moved enraged citizens to violent and deadly riots. For days, L.A. blazed with fire.
Rodney King’s death has all of America rear-viewing the state of racial relations in the nation over 20 years ago. Others, like the Trayvon Martins of the world, have no need to look that far back; they are looking just over their shoulders and finding not much has changed.
May you finally find the peace that your soul has been crying out for and deserves, Rodney—in the arms of the Lord.
