Sledge Hammer, Porn Star, Dies After LAPD Tasers Him
Adult performer Sledge Hammer, a.k.a. Marland Anderson, died over the weekend after he was tased by at least one LAPD officer more than a week ago.
Sledge Hammer / Facebook
The 6 foot, 1 inch porn star was restrained in a gurney and en route to a hospital for a psychiatric hold when he broke a handcuff and lifted the bed from a floor as he stood up, prompting an officer to use a taser, according to the Los Angeles Times and other reports.
But adult director Stoney Curtis told Xbiz ...
... the story happened a little differently:
The paramedics came and picked up the 39-year-old, but he suffered anxiety and wanted out of the ambulance. So they dropped Anderson off back at home and called cops, who proceeded to stun him:
... They decided to break out their tasers and just tasered him excessively until the point where he went into cardiac arrest. After he went into cardiac arrest, they rushed him to the hospital and revived him. But they estimated that his heart had stopped beating for 10 minutes. They got his heart beating again and put him on a respirator, but he had massive swelling in the brain from the loss of oxygen.
Sledge Hammer / Facebook
Anderson's girlfriend, performer Alexa Cruz, told Xbiz she called 911 that Sunday (April 8) to report that he was having a severe anxiety attack.
She said Anderson had a knife and she wanted to prevent him from hurting himself. In a struggle for the knife she said she cut her finger accidentally. Cruz told this to the website Luke is Back:
This was not a domestic violence situation at all so I want to make that totally clear. This man was being tortured by his own mind and suffering from severe insomnia. He came out peacefully when the police arrived and told them repeatedly that he was very tired and scared. I told them about his state and made it clear that he needed a hospital, NOT jail. What happened next, I did not see but according to the doctors/nurses I spoke to, he got scared and started to panic, and the LAPD responded by tazing him 6 times.
She tweeted this after his death Friday:
... The way the police handled this was horrible.
Cruz told outlets the Anderson had anxiety and depression problems that were exacerbated by his marijuana use.
But she claimed to Luke is Back that "he never took steroids."
An autopsy was pending, according to City News Service.
In 2010 alleged murderer Stephen Hill, also a porn star, died in a standoff with the LAPD after he was hit with less-than-lethal weapons rounds and fell or took a dive off a cliff.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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