Rodney King biography

Synopsis

King in the News

Rodney King, who gained national fame when his 1991 beating by Los Angeles police was caught on videotape, was reportedly shot late Wednesday night (Nov. 28, 2007).

King, 42, was wounded on a San Bernardino street corner before biking about 1 1/2 miles back to his home in neighboring Rialto to report the incident at 11:39 p.m., police said.

He had been shot two or three times with birdshot fired from a shotgun, police said. King, who was allegedly appeared drunk when police arrived at his home, was hit in the face, arms, back and torso. He was taken to a local hospital, but the wounds were not believed to be life-threatening.

No arrests were made, and other details of the shooting were sketchy. There was "speculation" that the shooting may have involved some kind of domestic dispute, but "we're not sure about that yet," San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson said.

Beating Incident by LAPD

King, an African-American, gained national attention when amateur cameraman George Holliday captured video of four white Los Angeles police officers clubbing and kicking him. The incident followed a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991.

The officers -- Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Stacey Koon -- were charged with criminal offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon. Their trial was originally set to be held in Los Angeles, but defense attorneys successfully argued that a fair trial in L.A. would be impossible because of the publicity.

The trial was moved to Simi Valley, a predominantly white suburb of L.A. The jury was comprised of ten white people, one Hispanic person, and one Asian person, and many people objected to the fact that there were no African Americans on the jury.

Acquittal and Resulting Riots

The officers’ acquittal in April 1992 triggered riots in South Central, Los Angeles. More than fifty people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured. 9,500 were arrested for rioting, looting, and arson.

The United States Department of Justice filed federal civil rights charges against the four officers, and in August of 1992 two of them were found guilty while the other two were acquitted.

King was eventually awarded $3.8 million in a civil trial for the injuries he sustained.

The riots and police response to it resulted in the resignation of Police Chief Darryl Gates, thought by many minorities to symbolize institutionalized racial intolerance. He was replaced by a black chief, Willie Williams, who introduced several changes suggested by an independent commission that investigated the riots.

Rodney Glen King, born April 2, 1965 in Fort Worth, Texas, has reportedly had several brushes with the law over the years.

In 2004, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of the drug PCP after he lost control of his SUV in 2003 and slammed into a power pole in Rialto. And in 2005, he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence.

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