Los Angeles Times - 04.03.2020

LATIMES.COM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020B

CITY & STATE

Los Angeles County

prosecutors will not file

criminal charges against two

police officers who fatally

shot “ER” actress Vanessa

Marquez inside her South

Pasadena home in August

2018 during a wellness check,

according to a memo from

the agency released Mon-

day.

The district attorney’s of-

fice determined that South

Pasadena Officers Gilberto

Carrillo and Christopher

Perez acted legally when

they fired 12 rounds at the

49-year-old after she bran-

dished a replica firearm.

“In this incident, the evi-

dence demonstrates that

Carrillo and Perez actually

and reasonably believed

Marquez posed an immi-

nent threat of great bodily

injury or death,” Shannon

Presby, head deputy district

attorney, wrote in the memo.

Police had been dis-

patched to Marquez’s

apartment in the 1100 block

of Fremont Avenue on Aug.

30, 2018, at the behest of a

friend who was concerned

for the actress’ well-being.

When officers arrived, they

knocked on the door for 10

minutes and eventually en-

tered the apartment.

The living area was

stacked with boxes, furni-

ture and other items in what

were described by author-

ities as “hoarding condi-

tions” that made it difficult

for officers to open the door

and move through the unit,

video from a body-worn

camera shows.

As soon as Marquez saw

one of the officers, she

screamed and began having

a seizure, the video shows.

Officers and a county men-

tal health clinician spoke

with Marquez for more than

an hour in an effort to per-

suade her to accept medical

help. Police said at the time

that she was uncooperative,

may have been suffering

from mental health issues

and appeared to be unable

to care for herself.

After Carrillo told

Marquez that she was going

to be taken to a hospital on a

psychiatric hold, Marquez

grabbed a pair of scissors

and what officers thought

was a handgun and pointed

it at them, according to the

memo.

“She has a gun! Gun!

Gun! Gun! Gun!” Carrillo

yelled as he ushered other

personnel out of the apart-

ment. He yelled several

times for Marquez to “drop

the gun” as he exited the

apartment and continued

down a staircase into a com-

mon area.

When Marquez emerged

from the apartment, Carrillo

told investigators, he heard

the sounds of a gun maga-

zine being inserted and a

slide being racked.

When Carrillo saw the

handgun being pointed in

their direction, he was

“scared out of his mind” and

fired about eight or nine

rounds from his .40-caliber

handgun through the dry-

wall toward Marquez. Perez

also fired his gun, according

to the memo.

The officers retrieved a

weapon after the shooting

and determined it was a BB

gun that resembled a pistol.

Marquez suffered two gun-

shot wounds and was taken

to a hospital, where she was

pronounced dead.

In 2019, Marquez’s

mother, Delia McElfresh,

filed a wrongful-death claim

against the city of South

Pasadena seeking $20 mil-

lion along with burial and fu-

neral expenses. The status

of the claim was not immedi-

ately clear Monday.

Marquez was best known

for her recurring role as

nurse Wendy Goldman on

the popular medical drama

“ER,” which ran for 15 sea-

sons until 2009. Marquez ap-

peared on the show from

1994 to 1997. She also starred

as student Ana Delgado in

the 1988 film “Stand and De-

liver,” which told the story of

East Los Angeles math

teacher Jaime Escalante.

In the years before her

death, Marquez used social

media to speak of her strug-

gles with celiac disease and

seizures. She wrote on Face-

book in March 2018 that she

was “terminally ill.”

Marquez in 2005 starred

in an episode on the first sea-

son of the reality television

show “Intervention,” which

delved into how a compul-

sive shopping addiction cre-

ated financial problems for

the actress, according to a

synopsis of the episode on

Amazon.

She grabbed headlines in

2017 when she accused “ER”

co-star George Clooney of

helping to blacklist her

from the series. Clooney has

publicly denied the allega-

tions.

Marquez had posted on

social media in the months

before the fatal encounter

about her desire to die and

her purchase of an “air” gun

that resembled a Glock.

Minutes before she was fa-

tally shot, she wrote on Face-

book that “there shooting

cremate me pour ashes over

Hollywood sign.”

“Her intention, as evi-

denced by her final Face-

book post, sadly appears

to have been to end her

life,” Presby wrote in the

memo.

Officers won’t

face charges in

fatal shooting

South Pasadena cops

reasonably believed

actress was a threat,

prosecutors say.

VANESSA MARQUEZ,

shown in the early 1990s,

pointed a replica firearm

at officers, police say.

NBC

By Hannah Fry

A brush fire that broke
out in the Santa Ana River
bottom in Norco on Tuesday
morning has stopped grow-
ing after tearing through 175
acres and temporarily forc-
ing nearby residents to evac-
uate.
The blaze, dubbed the
Mann fire, was reported at
9:51 a.m. along a section of
riverbed near California Av-
enue and Grulla Court. The
fire, which was initially re-
ported to be about 10 acres,
quickly chewed through
heavy, dry brush in the area
and swelled to 100 acres in
less than two hours, accord-
ing to the California Depart-
ment of Forestry and Fire
Protection.
It stopped growing by
midafternoon, and author-
ities lifted evacuation orders
west of California Avenue
and north of 8th Street.
As of 6:45 p.m., residents

north of North Drive and

east of California Avenue re-

mained under an evacuation

warning.

Two people suffered in-

juries that were not life-

threatening. Five properties

sustained minor damage to

fencing and outbuildings,

authorities said.

The homes sit in a city

known for its equestrian

trails and properties, offi-

cials said.

Evacuation centers were

set up at Corona High

School and Corona Jurupa

Valley High School. Resi-

dents with large animals

were told to go to the George

Ingalls Equestrian Event

Center.

Students from nearby

Riverview Elementary

School were evacuated from

the campus shortly after

noon and were taken by bus

to Norco High School, school

officials wrote in a message

to parents.

The Jurupa Unified

School District said several

of its schools were put on an

“inclement weather sched-

ule” because of smoke from

the fire.

More than 200 firefight-

ers responded to battle the

blaze amid winds gusting up

to 25 mph. The cause of the

fire has not been deter-

mined.

Television images

showed firefighters spraying

down trees and homes near

the fire as strong winds

whipped through the area.

Smoke was visible across

Riverside County.

A high-wind warning,

which expired at noon, was

in effect for the Norco area at

the time the fire broke out.

Northeast winds were gust-

ing between 15 and 25 mph in

the area shortly after noon

as temperatures climbed to

the high 70s.

“The winds are starting

to die down,” said Jimmy

Taeger, a meteorologist with

the National Weather Serv-

ice in San Diego. “Hopefully,

this means things will be get-

ting better soon for firefight-

ers.”

Large swaths of Califor-

nia are facing the driest com-

bined January and February

on record, and many areas of

the state already have rela-

tively dry vegetation.

Officials with the

weather service in Los Ange-

les wrote on Twitter that the

fire is “an indication of how

dry it is getting in SoCal

without significant rainfall

in the past two months.”

A HELICOPTERmakes water drops over a brush fire that broke out in the Santa Ana River bottom in Norco.
Two people suffered non-life-threatening injuries and some properties sustained damage, authorities said.

Irfan KhanLos Angeles TImes

Winds whip riverbed fire

Santa Ana

River

RIVERSIDE

COUNTY

Lake Mathews

Mann

fire

Corona

Riverside

Chino

Eastvale

Norco

ORANGE

COUNTY

SAN

BERNARDINO

COUNTY

Nextzen, OpenStreetMap

241

91

71

60

15

ONTARIO

INTERNATIONAL

AIRPORT

Paul Duginski Los Angeles Times

Blaze engulfs 175 acres

of dry brush in Norco

and forces residents

nearby to evacuate.

By Hannah Fry and
Alene Tchekmedyian

A man was killed when
the luxury sports car he was
driving slammed into a palm
tree — splitting the vehicle in
half — during a pursuit by
police in Newport Beach
that reached speeds up to
100 mph early Tuesday.
Newport Beach police
began pursuing the 2016
Mercedes-Benz AMG as it
was traveling south on Bal-
boa Boulevard on the Bal-
boa Peninsula shortly after 1
a.m.
It is unclear why officers
began following the vehicle.
The driver, a man in his late
20s, had been involved in an
argument with someone at a
nearby bar before the pur-

suit began, said Officer Flo-

rentino Olivera, a spokes-

man for the California High-

way Patrol.

The pursuit lasted about

10 minutes and ended when

the car failed to navigate a

turn and crashed into a palm

tree on Balboa Boulevard

near 24th Street, Olivera

said.

The crash left a large de-

bris field across the road.

Photos from the scene show

the mangled car near the

tree with the vehicle’s engine

lying about 100 feet away.

“That shows you he was

going at a high rate of speed

and the impact was very,

very hard,” Olivera said.

It was not immediately

clear whether alcohol was a

factor in the crash. The

driver was pronounced dead

at the scene. A female pas-

senger who was not identi-

fied was taken to a hospital

with major injuries, Olivera

said.

High-speed crash splits car in two

A MERCEDES hit a tree in Newport Beach on Tues-

day as it was pursued by police. The driver was killed.

OnScene TV

By Hannah Fry

SAN DIEGO — Federal
prosecutors received a
court’s approval this week
for extra space in a public
memorandum, which they
requested to provide an “ex-
pansive factual summary” of
the criminal conduct for
which former Rep. Duncan
Hunter (R-Alpine) is to be
sentenced this month.
U.S. District Judge
Thomas J. Whelan granted a
motion that prosecutors
filed Friday asking to exceed
any page limits for their sen-
tencing memorandum, if
they need extra space to re-
count Hunter’s crimes.
Prosecutors said an expan-

sive factual summary was

necessary to counter Hunt-

er’s public statements

downplaying his culpability

and shifting blame to others,

including his wife.

Defense lawyers also will

be allowed to file a memo-

randum longer than the usu-

al 25 pages, according to the

ruling Monday.

Hunter pleaded guilty on

Dec. 3 to one count of con-

spiracy to illegally convert

campaign money to person-

al use.

One of his lawyers argued

last week that Hunter had

clearly taken responsibility

for the crime, so the judge

should reject prosecutors’

request.

Defense lawyer Devin

Burstein also said the

court already has all the

information necessary to

hand down a sentence at a

hearing scheduled for March

17.

The disgraced former

lawmaker faces up to five

years in prison, but is ex-

pected to receive far less

time in custody, based on

recommendations in the

plea agreement with prose-

cutors.

The plea agreement re-

solved a 60-count indict-

ment filed against Hunter

and his wife and former cam-

paign manager, Margaret, in

August 2018 after a sweeping

campaign finance investiga-

tion. The two were accused

of using more than $250,

in campaign money for per-

sonal expenses including

oral surgery, tuition to their

children’s private school, te-

quila shots, an Italian vaca-

tion, Duncan Hunter’s get-

aways with girlfriends and

more.

Last June, as part of a

separate plea deal with pros-

ecutors, Margaret Hunter

admitted to a single count of

conspiracy and agreed to

testify against her husband.

She also faces up to five

years in prison when she is

sentenced in April but is ex-

pected to receive less time

behind bars.

Hunter resigned from

Congress in January, six

weeks after he pleaded

guilty.

Prosecutors get more space to recount Hunter’s misdeeds

DUNCAN HUNTERpleaded guilty to misusing cam-

paign funds and faces up to five years in prison.

John GibbinsSan Diego Union-Tribune

By Morgan Cook