SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. — Actress Vanessa Marquez, best known for playing a nurse in the long-running medical drama "ER," was shot and killed by police in South Pasadena, California, according to Variety.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that, at 1:48 p.m. Thursday, Marquez allegedly pointed a gun at two South Pasadena officers and was then shot and killed. The weapon was a BB gun that looked like a semiautomatic weapon, according to SGVT.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Joe Mendoza said Marquez, 49, was shot in the torso and later died at a local hospital.
"She was suffering from some problems, eating disorder," Mendoza told KNBC Thursday. "When they (officers) arrived, she was suffering a seizure."
SGVT reported that Mendoza said officers had been to Marquez's apartment multiple times before for mental health issues.
"At the time (of the shooting) there was an LA County mental health clinician here with the officers," Mendoza said, according to the South Pasadenan. "They began to communicate with her, she became very uncooperative and during that contact she armed herself with a handgun, she pointed it at the officers and an officer-involved shooting occurred."
Marquez played nurse Wendy Goldman on “ER” from 1994 to 1997. She appeared in the Edward James Olmos film “Stand and Deliver” in 1988.
In 2017, Marquez alleged that she was blacklisted from “ER” by former co-star George Clooney for speaking out about sexual harassment on set. Clooney denied the allegations.
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