Tragically shot to death at the age of fifteen by fellow E.O. Green Junior High School student Brandon McInerney, the openly gay King was the victim of a hate crime.
During his childhood years, he was diagnosed with both reactive attachment disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and he was bullied from the third grade on. The bullying intensified in junior high school when he began expressing himself by wearing female clothing.
His tragic death partially inspired author Raziel Reid's 2014 young adult novel When Everything Feels Like the Movies.
Born in Ventura, California, to a drug addict mother, he was adopted by Dawn and Gregory King when he was two years old, and he grew up with a brother named Rocky.
He and fellow LGBT youth Matthew Shepard both fell victim to hate crimes.
