A timeline of Rodney King 's life , including his 1991 beating by Los Angeles police and its aftermath . March 3 , 1991 . Rodney King is beaten by LAPD officers after King leads police on a high-speed chase through Los Angeles County . George Holliday videotapes the beating from his apartment balcony . March 4 , 1991 . Holliday delivers the tape to local television station , KTLA . March 7 , 1991 . Rodney King is released without being charged . March 15 , 1991 . Sgt . Stacey Koon and officers Laurence Michael Powell , Timothy Wind , and Theodore Briseno are indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in connection with the beating . May 10 , 1991 . A grand jury refuses to indict 17 officers who stood by at the King beating and did nothing . November 26 , 1991 . Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg orders the trial of the four officers charged in the King beating to be moved to Simi Valley . Rodney King : What happened in 1991 . April 29 , 1992 . The four white LAPD officers are acquitted of beating King . Riots start at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles . Reginald Denny , a white truck driver , is pulled from his truck and beaten . A news helicopter captures the beating on videotape . Gov . Pete Wilson declares a state of emergency and calls in National Guard troops . April 30-May 4 , 1992 . Dusk-to-dawn curfews are enforced in the city and county of Los Angeles . May 1 , 1992 . Rodney King makes an emotional plea for calm , stating , `` People , I just want to say , can we all get along ? Can we get along ? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids ? '' August 4 , 1992 . A federal grand jury returns indictments against Koon , Powell , Wind , and Briseno on the charge of violating the civil rights of Rodney King . February 25 , 1993 . Trial begins . April 16 , 1993 . The federal jury convicts Koon and Powell on one charge of violating King 's civil rights . Wind and Briseno are found not guilty . No disturbances follow the verdict . August 4 , 1993 . U.S. District Judge John Davies sentences both Koon and Powell to 30 months in prison for violating King 's civil rights . Powell is found guilty of violating King 's constitutional right to be free from an arrest made with `` unreasonable force . '' Ranking officer Koon is convicted of permitting the civil rights violation to occur . Photos : Rodney King and the LA Riots . April 19 , 1994 . The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles awards King $ 3.8 million in compensatory damages in a civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles . King had demanded $ 56 million , or $ 1 million for every blow struck by the officers . June 1 , 1994 . Rodney King is awarded nothing in punitive damages in a civil trial against the police officers . He had asked for $ 15 million . April 2012 . Rodney King 's autobiography , `` The Riot Within : My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption . Learning How We Can All Get Along , '' is published . June 17 , 2012 . King is found dead in his swimming pool , according to police and his fiancee , Cynthia Kelly . Overheard on CNN.com : Rodney King 'had demons . But called them his own ' Rodney King looks back without anger .
Rodney King was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday . The Los Angeles Police Department said the death is being investigated as a homicide. King was awarded $ 3.8 million in his suit against the city .