‘ER’ star shot dead by police
An actress from the hit TV series “ER” was shot and killed by police in California after allegedly brandishing a BB gun that resembled a semi-automatic handgun during a welfare check.
Vanessa Marquez, 49, played nurse Wendy Goldman on the primetime medical drama between 1994 and 1997.
She was shot at 1:48 p.m. Thursday when officers with the South Pasadena Police Department conducted a welfare check in an apartment complex for a female resident “possibly suffering from a medical condition,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Officers were called to Marquez’s residence by her concerned landlord around noon, officials said.
The responding officers requested paramedic assistance when they noticed Marquez was having seizures, the sheriff’s department statement said.
“While speaking to her, officers became aware she was possibly suffering from mental health issues, became uncooperative, and appeared to be unable to care for herself,” the statement said.
A Los Angeles County mental health clinician was on scene with the officers and continued to speak to Marquez for more than an hour and a half in an attempt to offer her medical care.
Marquez then “armed herself with a handgun and pointed it at the officers, at which time an officer-involved shooting occurred,” officials said. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. No officers were injured.
The BB gun was recovered at the scene, the sheriff ’s statement said.
“She was lovely, through and through,” friend Paula Guthat told the Daily News in a phone interview.