Rodney King Dead At 47

Rodney King, the LAPD beating victim who had experienced troubles with substance abuse since the incident that broke headlines in 1991 and led to race riots after the officers who brutalized him were acquitted, was found dead on Sunday in the swimming pool of his Rialto, Calif. home that he shared with his fiancee, Cynthia Kelley.

"People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks," King told the Los Angeles Times two months before his death. "I should have seen life like that and stay out of trouble, and don't do this and don't do that. But it's hard to live up to some people's expectations."

King, despite his troubled history, which included a stint on Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab on VH1, remained positive about his role in American history in recent years. "It's taken years to get used to the situation I'm in in life and the weight it holds. One of the cops in the jail said: 'You know what? People are going to know who you are when you're dead and gone. A hundred years from now, people still going to be talking about you.' It's scary, but at the same time, it's a blessing."

In April, King published a memoir entitled, The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. There is no foul play suspected in the events surrounding King's death.

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