Former ‘ER’ Actress Vanessa Marquez Shot And Killed By Police In LA

Vanessa Marquez, the actress who played Nurse Wendy Goldman on the popular ’90s medical drama ER, has been shot and killed by police officers who were sent to perform a welfare check at her home in South PasadenaCalifornia.

Lt Joe Mendoza of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told media that officers had been called to her apartment by her landlord, and they arrived around midday to find her in a condition described as “gravely disabled.”

Officers observed that the former actress was “undergoing some medical problems, some seizures.” She spoke with police and a mental health professional for around 90 minutes, but after that, “became uncooperative” and brandished a gun at officers.

Lt Mendoza said that officers opened fire at that point, shooting her in the chest. She died of her injuries in hospital, and the weapon she pointed at police was later discovered to be a BB gun that resembled a semi-automatic weapon.

Vanessa Marquez appeared on the hit series ER between 1994 and 1997 and only worked sporadically after that, with her IMDb page showing just six credits in the two decades since, most of them in independent and short films.

She made headlines last year when she accused her former co-star George Clooney of “black-listing” her when she spoke up about harassment on the set of the show, saying “women who don’t play the game lose [their] career.”

Clooney denied the allegation, telling Us Weekly:

“I had no idea Vanessa was blacklisted. I take her at her word. I was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show. I had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to. The fact that I couldn’t affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldn’t.”

The actress was 49.

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