1:11 PM PT -- The NYPD tells TMZ ... cops responded to the 911 call just after 5 PM on Thursday -- and found King unconscious. He was unresponsive, and EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is looking into his cause of death.

Eugene Thomas King Jr. -- the convicted bank robber who held a gun to Paula Deen's temple in 1987 -- has been found dead in New York City ... TMZ has learned.

Family sources tell TMZ ... King was found dead Thursday inside his Brooklyn apartment. It's currently unclear what caused his death.

We've reached out to the NYPD, FDNY and the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner for more.

We didn't hear much about King years after his armed robbery of Deen -- who worked as a bank teller at the time. According to Deen, King pressed a gun to her temple during the terrifying encounter. He was later convicted of the crime.

Years later, during the fallout over Deen's admission that she used racial language while recounting the traumatic incident, King unexpectedly entered the public conversation. In a 2013 interview with Inside Edition, King apologized to Deen for the fear he caused her and expressed regret for his actions.

At the time, he acknowledged the robbery and said he was sorry for putting her through such a frightening ordeal. King had largely remained out of the spotlight in recent years.