Actress Shot Dead By Cops After She Pointed Toy Gun At Them
Los Angeles : Vanessa Marquez, an actress who had a recurring role in the hit TV series "ER," was fatally shot by police as she waved what turned out to be a BB gun, authorities said on Friday.
Officers had gone to her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena on Thursday to conduct a welfare check when the 49-year-old Vanessa Marquez grabbed what looked like a handgun and pointed it at officers, said Sergeant Joe Mendoza, of the LA Sheriff's Department.
He said after the incident "officers checked the weapon and they discovered it was a BB-type gun that resembled a semi-automatic handgun."
Mendoza said Vanessa Marquez's landlord had called police to check on her and when officers arrived she appeared to be having a seizure.
He said the officers and a mental health clinician spoke with Vanessa 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," he said.
Vanessa Marquez played nurse Wendy Goldman on "ER" from 1994 to 1997 and also appeared on several other shows including "Seinfeld" and Melrose Place."
Last year, she made headlines after accusing "ER" co-star George Clooney of blacklisting her from the hit show for speaking out about sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
George Clooney issued a statement at the time denying he had anything to do with casting decisions.
"I was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show," he said. "I had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor."
courtesy : ndtv.com
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
