On March 3, 1991, four white Los Angeles police officers used batons, stun guns, feet and fists to beat Rodney King during a traffic stop in Lake View Terrace.
A man named George Holliday was awakened by the commotion outside his apartment and went outside to film it with his new video camera. Los Angeles officers could be seen punching, kicking and using a stun gun on King, even after he was on the ground.
A year later, Holliday’s out-of-focus footage — about 9 minutes worth — was a key piece of evidence at the four officers' criminal trial for assault and excessive use of force.
Below, images from the days after a jury acquitted all the officers on April 29, 1992 as the city erupted in violence and hundreds of businesses were looted and destroyed over several days.
Blocks of homes and stores went up in flames. More than 60 people died by shootings or other violence, mostly in South Los Angeles.
18 photos
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AP
George Holliday, left, has died of COVID-19. In this image, he points to the spot in April 26, 1997, along a roadside in the Lake View Terrace section of Los Angeles where he videotaped Rodney King, right, being beaten in April 1992.
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Getty
A California Highway patrolman directs raffic around a shopping center engulfed in flames in Los Angeles, 30 April 1992. Riots broke out in Los Angeles, 29 April 1992, after a jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating a black youth, Rodney King, in 1991, hours after the verdict was announced. (Photo credit should read CARLOS SCHIEBECK/AFP via Getty Images)
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AP/David Longstreath
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton tours the devastation in Los Angeles, California, May 4, 1992, following rioting after the Rodney King verdict. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
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Corbis via Getty Images
A man walks past a burning building during the Los Angeles riots. In April of 1992, after a jury acquitted the police officers involved in the beating of Rodney King, riots broke out throughout South Central Los Angeles, killing 55 people, injuring another 2,000, and causing more than $1 billion in damage. (Photo by David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images)
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AP Photo/Reed Saxon
A cross, flowers and a banner urging an end to violence adorn the ruins of a service station at Florence and Normandie Avenues in South-Central Los Angeles, May 3, 1992. The intersection was the site of the first reported violence on Wednesday that led to days of rioting, looting and burning as people angrily reacted to the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the Rodney King assault. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
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AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
A National Guardsman escorts a surfer off Venice Beach in Los Angeles Saturday, May 2, 1992 as area beaches were closed in the wake of disturbances following the verdict in the Rodney King videotaped beating trial. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
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AP Photo/Nick Ut
A Korean shopping mall burns at Thrid Street and Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles Thursday, April 30, 1992 on the second day of rioting in the city following the Rodney King assault. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
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AP Photo/Bob Galbraith
An unidentified man runs down Vermont Street in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 30, 1992 with electronic appliances taken from a 3rd Street store. Looting and fires continue in the wake of the verdicts from the Rodney King beating trial handed down. (AP Photo/Bob Galbraith)
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A Los Angeles police officer takes aim at a looter in a market at Alvarado and Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, April 30, 1992, during the second night of rioting in the city. On April 29, 1992, four white police officers were declared innocent in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, and Los Angeles erupted in the deadliest riots of the century. Three days later, 55 people were dead and more than 2,000 injured. Fires and looting had destroyed $1 billion worth of property. (AP Photo/John Gaps III)
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Rioters near Parker Center, LAPD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, over turn a parking kiosk and set it ablaze. Los Angeles has undergone several days of rioting due to the acquittal of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King. Hundreds of businesses were burned to the ground and over 55 people have been killed. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)
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Getty
A California Highway patrolman directs raffic around a shopping center engulfed in flames in Los Angeles, 30 April 1992. Riots broke out in Los Angeles, 29 April 1992, after a jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating a black youth, Rodney King, in 1991, hours after the verdict was announced. (Photo credit should read CARLOS SCHIEBECK/AFP via Getty Images)
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Andy Katz/Corbis via Getty Images
This April 29, 1992, file photo, shows protests against a not-guilty verdict against LAPD officers in the beating of Rodney King transformed into civil unrest in Los Angeles, California.
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HAL GARB/AFP via Getty Images
In this May 1, 1992, file photo, a National Guardsmen patrols trough a destroyed area in central Los Angeles.
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David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images
FILE: Asian American demonstrators march through the street carrying South Korean flags and signs which say “Love Your Neighbor-Jesus” and “We Can Get Along-Rodney King”.
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Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In this April 29, 1992, file photo, residents of the West Adams (Western Ave. and Adams Blvd.) district protest the verdict of the police officer who were acquitted of beating Rodney King in Los Angeles, California.
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Diana Walker/Getty Images
FILE: Pres. Bush (4L) conferring w. LA Urban League Pres. John Mack (L) et al during tour of area devastated in riots re cops’ acquittal in Rodney King trial.
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Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images
In this April 30, 1992, file photo, outside the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters at Parker Center (at 150 N Los Angeles Street), demonstrators protest in the wake of the verdict in the Rodney King case was announced, Los Angeles, California.
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FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
In this June 9, 2020, file photo, people walk past the name Rodney King seen on a chain-link fence surrounding Silver Lake Reservoir in Los Angeles, where a new art installation protesting police brutality spells out, in colourful woven fabric, the names of unarmed African Americans who have been killed by police.
