George Holliday, Who Filmed the 1991 Rodney King Beating, Dies After Contracting COVID: Reports 

George Holliday, a plumber who famously captured footage of the late Rodney King being beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991, has reportedly died after contracting COVID-19. He was 61.

According to fellow plumber and close friend Robert Wollenweber, per the Los Angeles Times, Holliday died on Sunday at a hospital where he'd been staying since mid-August in Simi Valley, California.

TMZ reports that Holliday was suffering from pneumonia, blood clots and internal bleeding and was placed on a ventilator before his death.

According to the outlet, Holliday was unvaccinated and his voicemail greeting mentioned that he was in the hospital with COVID.

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On March 3, 1991, Holliday filmed four police officers beating King, a Black motorist, on a freeway in the Los Angeles area, which eventually led to courtroom proceedings and the historic L.A. Riot the following year after the acquittal of the four officers involved.

King eventually won a civil lawsuit, in which a jury found the city of Los Angeles liable, and was awarded $3.8 million. Two officers were later convicted on federal civil rights charges and sentenced to serve prison terms.

King died of accidental drowning at the age of 47 in 2012.

The camera Holliday used to capture the incidence of police brutality — more than 25 years before the death of George Floyd was filmed — was put on auction last year with an astronomical starting bid of $225,000.

At the time, Holliday told the New York Times he hoped the auction would "inspire people to use their cameras for everything, the bad and the good."

He added, "People can accuse other people of doing stuff. But when it's on camera, it's different. You just can't argue with it."

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