An actress who appeared on the TV medical drama ER and starred in the film Stand and Deliver was fatally shot by police officers in Southern California after they say she pointed a replica handgun at them.
Vanessa Marquez, who gained attention last year when she said George Clooney helped blacklist her from Hollywood, died at a hospital following Thursday’s shooting at her apartment in South Pasadena, just outside Los Angeles.
South Pasadena police officers responded to a call from Marquez’s landlord that she needed medical help.
When they arrived she was having a seizure, police Lieutenant Joe Mendoza with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said on Friday.
Paramedics treated Marquez, 49, who improved, and began talking with three officers and a mental health clinician who spent an hour-and-a-half trying to talk her into getting medical help, Mendoza said.
Marquez became uncooperative, appeared unable to care for herself and seemed to have mental health issues, he said.
At some point, Marquez got what turned out to be a BB gun and pointed it at the officers, prompting two of them to shoot, Mendoza said.
“It looked like a real gun,” he said, adding that it is unclear where the gun was during her lengthy interaction with police.
The officers were wearing body cameras, but footage will not be released for at least six months pending the investigation, Mendoza said.
Terence Towles Canote, a close friend of Marquez’s, said the actress was having health and financial problems, but that she showed no signs of depression or other mental troubles.
She still talked about her dream of winning an Oscar one day and was hopeful for a career comeback, he said.
“She was looking forward to life,” Canote said.
“This is not a woman who wanted to die,” Canote said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of