LOS ANGELES (AP) – George Holliday, the Los Angeles plumber who recorded a low-definition video of four white police officers hitting black driver Rodney King in 1991, has died of complications from COVID-19, said a friend on monday.
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Holliday, 61, died Sunday in a Los Angeles hospital where he had been hospitalized for more than a month, according to Robert Wollenweber, a longtime friend and former co-worker. Holliday was not vaccinated and in recent days he was put on a ventilator after falling ill with pneumonia, Wollenweber said.
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Holliday was awakened by the noise of a traffic stop outside his home in the San Fernando Valley on the night of March 3, 1991. He went out to record it with his new video camera, capturing Los Angeles police officers hitting, kicking and using a stun gun against King, even when he was already on the ground.
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A year later, Holliday’s unfocused shots – approximately 9 minutes long – were crucial evidence in the criminal trial of the four policemen for assault and excessive use of force.
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When a jury acquitted the four police officers on April 29, 1992, a wave of widespread violence broke out in the city. Hundreds of businesses were looted and destroyed over several days. Whole blocks of houses and shops were consumed by the flames. More than 60 people were killed by gunshots or other acts of violence, the majority in South Los Angeles.
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King sued Los Angeles for the beating and was awarded $ 3.8 million in 1994, but told The Associated Press in 2012 that he lost most of that money on failed investments. He drowned in his backyard pool on June 17, 2012, at age 47.
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Holliday’s death was first reported by TMZ.com.
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