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An actress who appeared on the TV medical drama ER and played in the movie Stand and Deliver was identified as the woman who was shot deadly by police officers in Southern California after they said they were targeting a replica sponge on them.
Most important points:
- Officers responded to a phone call from Marquez's landlord that she needed medical help when they noticed she was being attacked
- She recovered, but became non-cooperative, reportedly got what turned out to be a BB gun and pointed it to the officers, forcing two of them to shoot
- A good friend said she had health problems and financial problems, but she did not show signs of depression or other mental problems
The woman got attention last year when she said that George Clooney helped her to blacklist her from Hollywood.
Vanessa Marquez, 49, died in a hospital after Thursday's shooting in her apartment in South Pasadena, just outside of Los Angeles, police said.
The South Pasadena police responded to a phone call from the Marquez landlord that she needed medical help when she noticed she was being attacked, said Lieutenant Joe Mendoza at the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department.
Paramedics treated Marquez, who improved and began talking to three officers and a clinical psychologist who spent an hour and a half trying to talk to her to get additional medical help, both physically and mentally, Lieutenant Mendoza said.
Marquez became non-cooperative, seemed unable to take care of himself and seemed to have psychological problems, he said.
At one point, Lieutenant Mendoza said that Marquez turned out to have a BB gun and pointed to the officers, so two of them had to shoot.
"It looked like a real gun," he said, adding that it was unclear where the gun was during her long-term interaction with the police.
The officers wore body cameras, but images will not be released for at least six months while awaiting the investigation, said Lieutenant Mendoza.
& # 39; This is not a woman who wanted to die & # 39;
Terence Towles Canote, a good friend of Marquez, said that the actress had health problems and financial problems, but that she did not show signs of depression or other mental problems.
She talked about her dream of winning an Oscar one day and was hopeful for a career comeback despite her medical battle, he said.
"She looked forward to life," said Canote. "This is not a woman who wanted to die."
Marquez published extensively on Facebook and in other outlets about her health problems, and said she was terminally ill and had convulsions and celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that can damage the small intestine with the intake of gluten.
In 2014 she said in an online message that she had spent her entire life on savings to doctors and hospitals who did not treat her well and that she could not work or "could perform the most basic everyday functions".
Marquez got attention last year after having tweeted that Clooney had blacklisted her from Hollywood when she complained of sexual harassment and racist comments under their ER stars.
Clooney said in a statement to US Weekly that he was merely an actor of the show and was not aware of a black list.
"When she was told that I was involved in every decision about her career, she was lied to," he said.
"The fact that I could not influence her career is only surpassed by the fact that I would not."
Marquez also appeared on episodes of Seinfeld, Melrose Place and Malcolm & Eddie, but her career flew largely after ER.
One of her posts was about being grateful to be part of Stand and Deliver, a 1988 film about a math teacher who motivated struggling students motivated at a tough high school in Los Angeles.
"If you are really lucky, you may live your dream and do the work you have done on this earth," she wrote.
"If you're really lucky, you're doing a movie that makes history and affects the lives of millions of people … It's a long time after we're gone."
AP
Subjects:
law-crime-and-justice,
Arts and Entertainment,
United States
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