Age, Biography, and Wiki
Rodney King was born on April 2, 1965, in Sacramento, California. He grew up in Altadena, California, with his parents, Ronald and Odessa King, and four siblings. King attended John Muir High School. His life took a dramatic turn on March 3, 1991, when he was brutally beaten by LAPD officers during a traffic stop, which was captured on video by a bystander. This incident sparked widespread outrage and led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
| Occupation | Business |
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| Date of Birth | 2 April 1965 |
| Age | 60 Years |
| Birth Place | Sacramento, California, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 17 June, 2012 |
| Died Place | Rialto, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is limited public information available about Rodney King's height and weight. However, his physical appearance was often noted during his public appearances and interviews following the 1991 incident.
At a press conference, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates announced that the four officers who were involved would be disciplined for use of excessive force and that three would face criminal charges. The LAPD initially charged King with "felony evading", but later dropped the charge. On his release, King spoke to reporters from his wheelchair, with his injuries evident: a broken right leg in a cast, his face badly cut and swollen, bruises on his body, and a burn area on his chest where he had been jolted with a stun gun. King described how he had knelt, spread his hands out, then slowly tried to move so as not to make any "stupid moves", before he was hit across the face by a billy club, and shocked with a stun gun. King also said he was scared for his life when the officers drew their guns on him.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Rodney King was married to Crystal King, but they experienced a tumultuous relationship, with King being arrested multiple times for domestic violence incidents involving his wife. At the time of his death, King was engaged to Cynthia Kelly, who found him deceased in his swimming pool on June 17, 2012.
He and his four siblings grew up in Altadena, California. King attended John Muir High School and often talked about being inspired by his social science teacher, Robert E. Jones. King's father died in 1984 at the age of 42.
King had a daughter with his girlfriend, Carmen Simpson. He later married Denetta Lyles (cousin of hate crime victim James Byrd Jr. and also cousin of rapper Mack 10) and had a daughter. King and Lyles eventually divorced. He later remarried and had a daughter with Crystal Waters. This marriage also ended in divorce.
Early in the morning of Sunday, March 3, 1991, King, with his friends Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were driving a 1987 Hyundai Excel west on the Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The three had spent the night watching basketball and drinking at a friend's house in Los Angeles. At 12:30 a.m., officers Tim and Melanie Singer, husband and wife members of the California Highway Patrol, noticed King's car speeding on the freeway. They pursued King with lights and sirens, and the pursuit reached 117 mph (188 km/h), while King refused to pull over. King would later say he fled the police hoping to avoid a driving under the influence charge and the parole violation that could follow.
King was subject to further arrests and convictions for driving violations after the 1991 incident, as he struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. In May 1991, King was arrested on suspicion of having tried to run down an undercover vice officer in Hollywood, but no charges were filed. In 1992, he was arrested for injuring his wife, Crystal King. Crystal ultimately declined to file a complaint. On August 21, 1993, King crashed his car into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles. He was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, fined, and entered a rehabilitation program, after which he was placed on probation. In July 1995, King was arrested by Alhambra police after hitting Crystal with his car and knocking her to the ground during a fight. King had previously been arrested twice on suspicion of abusing her. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run.
On Father's Day, June 17, 2012, King's partner, Cynthia Kelley, found him dead underwater at the bottom of his swimming pool. King died 28 years to the day after his father, Ronald King, was found dead in his bathtub in 1984.
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| Husband | Daneta Lyles (m. 1985-1988) Crystal Waters (m. 1989-1996) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Rodney King's net worth was estimated to be about $250,000 at the time of his death. He received a $3.8 million settlement from the city of Los Angeles for the police brutality he endured. However, much of this money was used for various expenses, including starting a hip-hop record label called Straight Alta-Pazz Recording Company, which eventually went out of business.
Career, Business, and Investments
- Police Brutality Incident: King's most notable moment was the police brutality incident in 1991, which led to significant civil rights activism and legal reforms.
- Record Label: He invested some of his settlement in Straight Alta-Pazz Recording Company, aiming to provide employment opportunities for minorities. However, the business failed.
- Memoir and Public Appearances: King wrote a memoir about his experiences and appeared on reality TV shows like "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" and "Sober House," discussing his struggles with addiction.
- Public Speaking and Advocacy: King occasionally spoke publicly about his experiences and advocated for healing and understanding, famously saying, "Can we all just get along?".
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley offered King $200,000 and a four-year college education funded by the city of Los Angeles. King refused and sued the city, and was subsequently awarded $3.8 million. Bryant Allen, one of the passengers in King's car on the night of the incident, received $35,000 in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. The estate of Freddie Helms, the other passenger, settled for $20,000; Helms died in a car crash on June 29, 1991, age 20, in Pasadena. King invested a portion of his settlement in a record label, Straight Alta-Pazz Records, hoping to employ minority employees, but it went out of business. With help from a ghostwriter, he later wrote and published a memoir.
Social Network
During his lifetime, Rodney King was not particularly active on social media platforms, as they were not as prevalent during the peak of his public visibility. However, his story and legacy continue to be discussed and shared widely on social media and other digital platforms.
Plumbing salesman and amateur videographer George Holliday's videotape of the beating was shot on his camcorder from his apartment near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street in Lake View Terrace. Two days later (March 5), Holliday called LAPD headquarters at Parker Center to let the police department know that he had a videotape of the incident. Still, he could not find anyone interested in seeing the video. He went to KTLA, a local television station, with his recording. KTLA's Warren Wilson was the first reporter to take on the story, interviewing King inside his jail ward. Holliday, whose video camera was in another part of his residence, was unable to retrieve it until the officers were already in the act of beating King. The footage as a whole became an instant media sensation. Portions were aired numerous times, and it "turned what would otherwise have been a violent, but soon forgotten, encounter between the Los Angeles police and an uncooperative suspect into one of the most widely watched and discussed incidents of its kind".
"I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? And ... I mean we've got enough smog in Los Angeles let alone to deal with setting these fires and things ... It's just not right. It's not right, and it's not going to change anything. We'll get our justice. They've won the battle, but they haven't won the war. We'll get our day in court, and that's all we want. And, just, uh, I love – I'm neutral. I love every – I love people of color. I'm not like they're making me out to be. We've got to quit. We've got to quit; I mean, after all, I could understand the first – upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shot on the ground – it's just not right. It's just not right, because those people will never go home to their families again. And uh, I mean, please, we can, we can get along here. We all can get along. We just gotta. We gotta. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's, you know, let's try to work it out. Let's try to beat it, you know. Let's try to work it out."
The BBC quoted King commenting on his legacy. "Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero. Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction like I'm a fool for believing in peace."
* In 1991, Ice Cube's album; Death Certificate featured a song titled "Alive On Arrival", in which Ice Cube mentions not wanting to go out like Rodney King.
* The 1993 song "This Little Pig" by Living Colour includes the sample "Fifty-six times in eighty-one seconds. Something like this", taken from politician Bill Bradley discussing the blows of the four police officers beating King.
Education
King attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, but there is no record of him pursuing higher education beyond high school. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley offered him a four-year college education funded by the city, but King declined this offer in favor of pursuing legal compensation.
