Actress Vanessa Marquez, best known for playing Nurse Wendy Goldman on ER, died Thursday after reportedly being shot and killed by police officers.
Marquez was 49 years old.
The actress, who is also known for smaller roles in Stand And Deliver and Seinfeld, was reportedly killed during a welfare check by police officers at her rented apartment in Southern California.
Officers and a mental health specialist were called to the home at 11:45 a.m. Thursday by the landlord, who was concerned about a woman's well-being.
Sheriff's deputies told local outlet ABC7 that the "gravely disabled" woman was having a seizure as police arrived, then spoke with officers for more than 90 minutes as they tried to offer her medical care.
Police say Marquez was holding what was later identified as a "BB-type" toy gun, which caused officers to open fire on her.
The LAPD did not immediately confirm Marquez's identity because they were still in the process of contacting her next of kin.
But a source reported to The South Pasadenan that the 49-year-old Hispanic woman killed by police on Thursday was Marquez.
The newspaper reported that Marquez was shot at least once, and pronounced dead at the hospital.
After leaving ER in 1997, Marquez famously accused her costar George Clooney of "blacklisting her," after she complained to producers about being harassed on set. Clooney has always strongly denied her allegations.
"I take her at her word," he told US Weekly in 2017.
"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."
In recent years, Marquez had written about suffering from seizures and living with celiac disease on her Facebook page.
[H/T: The South Pasadenan]
