SOUTH PASADENA (CNS) - Detectives continued their investigation today into the circumstances that led to a 49-year-old woman being shot and killed by South Pasadena police while having a seizure and waving what turned out to be a BB gun, authorities said.
The woman was identified today by sheriff's homicide detectives as Vanessa Marquez, a resident of South Pasadena. Marquez was also an actress who starred in the hit show ER. Last year she criticized George Clooney, accusing him of blacklisting her in Hollywood, according to media reports.
Officers were sent about 11:50 a.m. Thursday to conduct a welfare check in the 1100 block of Fremont Avenue, according to the South Pasadena Police Department.
"She (Marquez) was suffering from some problems, eating disorder,” Sgt. Joe Mendoza of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told reporters at the scene. ``When they (officers) arrived, she was suffering a seizure.”
"During the course of (the) investigation, a confrontation with a subject ensued and an officer-involved shooting occurred,” according to a police statement.
"Marquez was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead, Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators said.
"A Los Angeles County Mental Health clinician was on scene with officers from South Pasadena PD,” according to a sheriff's department statement. ``They continued to speak to her (Marquez) for over an hour and a half in an attempt to offer her medical care. She then armed herself with a handgun and pointed it at the officers, at which time an officer-involved shooting occurred.”
"After the shooting, officers checked the weapon and they discovered it was a BB-type gun that resembled a semi-automatic handgun,” Mendoza said.
No officers were injured.
Fremont Avenue between Monterey Road and Oxley Street was closed in both directions until about midnight.
The sheriff's department was assisting South Pasadena police in the shooting investigation.
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