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Former ER Star Vanessa Marquez Shot and Killed by Police

She played nurse Wendy Goldman on the medical drama

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Keisha Hatchett

Vanessa Marquez, who starred on the medical drama ER, has died. She was 49 years old.

According to the South Pasadenan, the actress was shot by police in her California home during a routine welfare check. In a press conference on Thursday, Lt. Joe Mendoza of the L.A. Sheriff's homicide bureau said authorities were alerted by a landlord who called about a woman in trouble. Officers said she was suffering from medical issues including seizures and that she was "gravely disabled."

"At the time [of the shooting] there was an LA County mental health clinician here with the officers," he explained during the presser. "They began to communicate with her, she became very uncooperative and during that contact she armed herself with a handgun, she pointed it at the officers and an officer-involved shooting occurred." Marquez was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Police later recovered a BB gun that Mendoza said "resembled a semi-automatic handgun."

Marquez starred as nurse Wendy Goldman on ER from 1994-1997. Her other credits include Malcolm & Eddie, Seinfeld, Melrose Place and the film Stand And Deliver. She appeared in a 2005 episode of A&E's Intervention for depression, OCD and an addiction to shopping. In October 2017, Marquez accused her former ER co-star George Clooney of stalling her career after she reported harassment on the set of the NBC series which ran for 15 seasons.

"Clooney helped blacklist me when I spoke up about harassment on ER.'women who don't play the game lose career.' I did," she tweeted from her currently-suspended account.

Clooney denied the accusations, saying in a statement to Deadline, "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."

Marquez's death is currently under investigation which is common for police-involved shootings.