Actress Vanessa Marquez was shot and killed by police in California.
The Fatherhood star died on Thursday during a police confrontation after Pasadena Police officers arrived at her home for a welfare check, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
When officers arrived, Marquez was suffering from seizures and appeared to be in mental distress.
According to Buzzfeed News, officers tried to get Marquez to seek additional care for about an hour and a half. She reportedly refused, then grabbed a BB gun.
The officers mistook the toy for a semiautomatic rifle and shot the actress. She was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.
Marquez spoke openly about being sick, writing on Facebook that a combination of celiac disease, pulmonary embolisms and sudden seizures had her facing death.
A friend of the actress, Paula Guthat, told Buzzfeed that Marquez struggled to get proper medical care because of her financial situation.
“She didn’t have insurance, so it was very difficult for her to get the care she needed,” Guthat said. “I think if she had gotten it I think her conditions wouldn’t have spiraled so disastrously and she would probably have still been with us.”
Marquez was best known for portraying Wendy on NBC’s ER for three seasons.
Her role on the show returned to the spotlight when she accused her ER costars Eriq La Salle and Terence Nightingall of being “pussy grabbers” during the early days of the #MeToo movement.
In October 2017, she accused another ER costar, George Clooney, of having her blacklisted for coming forward with the allegations against La Salle and Nightingall.
Clooney claimed to have done not such thing, writing in a statement, "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,” he said in a statement. “The fact that I couldn’t affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldn’t.”
Minerva Garcia Ortega, another friend of the actress, wrote a touching memorial on Facebook that supported Marquez's claims of blacklisting.
“Hollywood killed her a long time ago,” Ortega wrote. “She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
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