Victim of beating that sparked LA riots dies

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Rodney King, whose beating by police in 1992 sparked the Los Angeles race riots, was found dead in his swimming pool early on Sunday, authorities said. He was 47.

Rialto Police Captain Randy Deanda said King was found "unresponsive" at the bottom of his pool and was pronounced dead at a local medical center shortly afterward.

"Preliminarily, there do not appear to be any signs of foul play," Deanda added, noting that police were conducting a drowning investigation and that the coroner's office would perform an autopsy.

King became a symbol of racial tensions in America following his beating by baton-wielding LA police after a high-speed car chase was caught on camera.

He was severely beaten by four white police officers who struck him more than 50 times with their wooden batons and used a stun gun. He was left with 11 skull fractures, a broken eye socket and facial nerve damage.

Four officers involved went on trial for use of excessive force but were acquitted on April 29, 1992, triggering days of deadly rioting in Los Angeles that left more than 50 people dead and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage.

Speaking ahead of the 20th anniversary of the riots, King said racism still had to be challenged.

Asked about his feelings toward the police officers who beat him, he said: "I have forgiven (them), because America has forgiven me for so many things and given me so many chances. King had a number of brushes with the law since 1992.

King recalled that he had been drinking despite being on parole after a 1991 robbery conviction and was headed home from a friend's house when he saw that a police car was following him and panicked, worried he would be sent back to jail.

A man who had quietly stepped outside his home to observe the commotion videotaped most of King's beating by police officers and turned a copy over to a TV station. It was played over and over for the following year, inflaming racial tensions across the country.

But while Los Angeles race relations and the city's police department made strides forward, King kept coming before police and courts, struggling with alcohol addiction and arrests, periodically reappearing publicly for a stint on Celebrity Rehab or a celebrity boxing match.

He spent the last months of his life promoting a memoir he titled The Riot Within: From Rebellion to Redemption.

Questions:

1. How old was Rodney King when he passed?

2. Where were the riots held?

3. Who did the man who videotaped the beating turn a copy of the video over to?

Answers:

1. 47.

2. Los Angeles.

3. A TV Station.

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.