THESP SHOT DEAD
Menaced cops amid seizures
Former “ER” actress Vanessa Marquez was fatally shot by California cops when she threatened them with a BB gun while suffering seizures, authorities said Friday.
Police and a county mentalhealth worker came to the South Pasadena apartment of Marquez, 49, as part of a welfare check after a landlord reported that she was behaving erratically, officials said.
Marquez — who portrayed nurse Wendy Goldman on the hit TV series and last year accused co-star George Clooney of blackballing her — “was undergoing some medical problems, some seizures,” when authorities arrived, said Lt. Joe Mendoza of the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department homicide bureau.
“It appeared that the female was gravely disabled,” he said.
“They began to communicate with her. She became very uncooperative, and during that contact, she armed herself with a handgun,” Mendoza said.
The weapon “resembled a semiautomatic handgun,” Mendoza said.
“She pointed it at the officers, and an officer-involved shoot- ing occurred” about 90 minutes after their arrival, he said.
Shot at least once in the torso, Marquez was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Cops had been called frequently to the apartment of Marquez, whose Facebook page has detailed her struggles with celiac disease and the seizures it can cause.
A friend told the Los Angeles Times that Marquez was terrified of being evicted from her home.
“She told me she wouldn’t mind passing away at home and haunting the beautiful building she lived in, as she was in love with where she lived,’’ said the pal, Toni McGhee.
Marquez was last in the news in October, accusing Clooney of being a hypocrite for publicly supporting the #MeToo move- ment even though he “blacklisted” her from the medical drama after she complained of sex harassment by other actors.
Clooney has denied the allegation.
Her “ER” character — a sweet, sometimes comically exasperated nursing assistant — appeared in 27 episodes during the first three seasons of the series, between 1994 and 1997.