Black motorist whose beating by police triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots was on drugs when he plunged to his death in his pool

Rodney King had been drinking and was on drugs when he plunged into a swimming pool and accidentally drowned in June, a coroner’s report concluded.

Mr King was the black motorist videotaped while being severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991. The officers’ acquittal triggered the devastating 1992 Los Angeles riot.

The report confirmed a previous police conclusion that Mr King died by accident and the case will be closed, Rialto police Captain Randy DeAnda said.

“Basically, our investigation revealed the same conclusion and, now that we have the toxicology, it reinforces that.”

Mr King had fought a long struggle with addiction. A call from his fiancée summoned police to his Rialto home at 5.30 a.m. local time on June 17. Officers pulled him from the bottom of the pool and he was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Cynthia Kelley told authorities she was in bed when she was woken and saw Mr King at a patio door.

“She described him making grunting and growling sounds and having frothy secretions coming from his mouth,” the report stated.

When Mr King fell over a planter, Ms Kelley went for her mobile phone to call for help. She heard a splash and by the time she got to the pool, Mr King was face down in the deep end.

Ms Kelley could not swim and attempted to revive Mr King by prodding him with a pitchfork and hoe before authorities arrived, the report said.

The San Bernardino County Coroner’s report listed the cause of death as drowning “and the contributing cause was combined with ethanol (alcohol) and multiple drug toxicity”, Captain DeAnda said.

Toxicology tests showed that Mr King had a blood-alcohol level of .06 and amounts of PCP, cocaine and marijuana in his system, the captain said.

“Mr King was in a state of drug- and alcohol-induced delirium at the time of the terminal event and either fell or jumped into the swimming pool,” Captain DeAnda said.

“Obviously, the effects of the drugs and alcohol combined precipitated some kind of cardiac arrhythmia, thus incapacitated Mr King, and he was unable to save himself.”

Arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat.

The report details numerous injuries Mr King suffered over his lifetime, including several birdshot pellets which remained in his body after being shot in 2007 by a shotgun.

Mr King liked to skateboard and some of the injuries seen by medical examiners may have come from falls while playing, his brother, Zhan Paul King, told investigators.

Mr King’s death came just months after the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riot brought him renewed attention. In the intervening years he had struggled with substance abuse and had a string of arrests.

But, at the time, he had just published a book about his life and was upbeat.

“America’s been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all,” he said.

“This part of my life is the easy part now.”

It was an unusually positive view for a man who symbolised the problem of police brutality and had long since lost the $3.8 million he was awarded in a civil suit against the city over the beating.

In March 1991, the then 25-year-old Mr King led authorities on a high-speed chase that ended on a darkened street.

He was stopped by four Los Angeles police officers who were videotaped striking him more than 50 times with batons, kicking him and shooting him with stun guns.

He suffered 11 skull fractures, a broken eye socket and facial nerve damage.