It was a cocktail of alcohol and drugs
that killed Rodney King

NEW YORK – On the night of his death Rodney King was in the grip of a deadly cocktail of drugs and alcohol. That’s why, having fallen into the pool, he couldn’t save himself. This is what the coroner says – according to the DMZ website – in his report on the circumstances in which the African-American driver lost his life and became the symbol of the Los Angeles race clashes in the 1990s. This is revealed by the DMZ website. “King – reads the report – was in a state of alcohol and drug induced delirium, which combined with the heart problems he suffered, probably precipitated him into a cardiac arrhythmia”. That is why he would not have been able to save himself after having dived or fallen into the pool of his house, where he was found the night of 17 June last. A response that should clarify a tragic and mysterious death.

In the report it is specified that in the body of King, who was 47 years old, traces of cocaine, marijuana and Pcp were found, a hallucinogen known as “angel dust”, as well as of alcohol. King became famous after he was arrested in Los Angeles and brutally beaten by four white policemen on March 3, 1991. Coincidentally, a video amateur filmed everything and the images were relaunched by TV stations throughout the United States. The four were then tried and, a year later, acquitted by a popular jury composed of whites, a Hispanic and an Asian. The decision triggered a strong protest, boundless in clashes and violence, so as to force the intervention of the National Guard on the fourth day of accidents, when the death toll was dramatic: 53 dead.

(August 23, 2012)