Vanessa Marquez’s Mother Reaches Settlement After ‘ER’ Star Was Fatally Shot By Police

The City of South Pasadena California settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Delia McElfresh, mother of actress Vanessa Marquez. The ER actress was fatally shot in 2018 by police during a wellness check at her apartment.

McElfresh and the city settled for $450,000.

“Any loss of life is tragic,” South Pasadena Mayor Diana Mahmud said in a statement. “However, I can now report the parties have reached a mutually agreeable settlement in the amount of $450,000 in order to save the parties the costs associated with protracted litigation.”

Marquez’s mother filed a $20 million lawsuit against the city, the police chief and some officers last year, alleging poor tactics and overreaction among other things.

Last March, the L.A. County district attorney’s office decided not to file criminal charges against two officers involved in the shooting, despite investigating them and the incident in question.

The DA’s office said the officers acted legally because Marquez posed “an imminent threat of great bodily injury or death.”

The officers responded to a wellness check requested by Marquez’s landlord. According to Lt. Joe Mendoza, Marquez was having a seizure when the police arrived. They reported that she was not cooperating with the police and eventually reached for a BB gun that the officers mistook for a handgun.

“We believe our officers acted appropriately under a tragic set of circumstances,” City Manager Stephanie DeWolfe said in a statement released shortly after the shooting. “We support our officers and stand by them during this investigation. We believe the facts will show that our officers, along with a mental health professional, made every attempt to resolve the situation peacefully before the use of deadly force became necessary.” 

Marquez played nurse Wendy Goldman in the first few season of ER. She was also in the award winning film Stand and Deliver.