COVID-19 has claimed the life of George Holliday, the man who filmed the 1991 police beating of Rodney King, which sparked riots across Los Angeles.
Holliday passed away Sunday night in a Southern California hospital where he had been battling the coronavirus since late August. According to CNN, friends of the late 61-year-old say he was not vaccinated.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t want to get vaccinated. He wanted to get the Covid so he could build immunities and his wish came true about a month ago,” said Wollenweber in a telephone interview with CNN. “He got sicker and sicker and was having trouble breathing, so they finally took him to the hospital. When his oxygen levels went down, they put them on a ventilator. And then he got pneumonia and his kidneys were shutting down and he had internal bleeding. And then he died Sunday.”
In 1991, Los Angeles Police officers beat motorist Rodney King 54 times with batons following a simple speeding violation. George Holliday was praised by the Reverend Jesse Jackson back in 1993 for having the courage to shine a light on police brutality in America. The police beating and shooting of unarmed black men is a constant topic of accountability and justice to this day.
Rodney King passed away at the age of 47 in 2012 after a accidental drowning at his Los Angeles home.
No word on how Holliday caught Covid-19, our thoughts are with his loved ones.
