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Rodney King’s cousin is a doctor at Boston Medical Center fighting racial injustice

BOSTON — Police brutality is a national concern as our country continues to fight for racial justice. A doctor at Boston Medical Center, who is making his voice heard in the movement, was related to the man at the center of one of the most notorious incidents of police brutality ever captured on video.

The vicious beating of Rodney King was so horrific that it sent shockwaves around the world. Those shockwaves hit close to home to a young Deandre King.

“At the time I didn’t know he was my cousin because I was too young to have that realization, but I do remember the reaction from it,” Dr. Deandre King said.

King is now a neurology resident physician at Boston Medical Center. He was 7 years old and living in south-central Los Angeles in 1991 when his cousin was shown on video being beaten during an arrest by several LAPD officers.

It sparked some of the worst race riots in U.S. history.

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Dr. King said he never actually met his cousin because of a big age gap and a fractured family but feels his cousin’s legacy really shaped his belief on how much his own life matters.

"I think one of the things that's stuck with me is you realize how many degrees of freedom you are from what happened," Dr. King said.

Dr. King is active in the Black Lives Matter movement in Boston and believes it's no longer something that you need to be nervous to explain to your work or your friends that you're participating.

“I just recall all these people before me marched and put themselves at risk and put their careers at risk for me to have the rights I’m enjoying now, so I felt like it was an actual imperative and I owed it to kind of do the same, no matter what the risks might be,” he said.

Dr. King said several of his colleagues at Boston Medical Center have joined him in taking part in protests. He said he feels it's important to put himself out there.

His cousin, Rodney King, died in an accidental drowning in 2012 at the age of 47.