Marland Anderson, a porn star who is known as Sledge Hammer, was tased by police until he went into cardiac arrest. According to one of Anderson’s friends, police officers might have been intimidated by his size and used a taser instead of other ways to subdue the porn star. Anderson passed away on Friday, which was five days after he was taken to the hospital by police after he tried to commit suicide. Everything started on April 8 when police officers responded to a report of an attempted suicide in Reseda. Upon arriving at the scene, Anderson’s fiance said he tried to kill himself with a knife and she struggled with the man.
Anderson had to be restrained on a gurney, which he broke free from a floor lock and broke a handcuff while on the way to the hospital. When this happened, police tasered him. Adult film director Stoney Curtis described what happened:
“When the cops arrived, Anderson’s height (6-foot-4) and bulk intimidated them, and rather than try to subdue him with the manpower available, they began shooting him with their Tasers—”excessively,” according to Curtis—to the point where he suffered a heart attack and for all intents and purposes died for 10 minutes until the EMTs were able to restart his heart.”
Anderson had swelling in his brain and his mother was told by doctors that he would likely not come out of a coma. The doctors also told his mother that if he was to exit the coma he would not regain consciousness. Anderson’s mother took him off life support on Thursday night. Anderson was suffering from anxiety, depression and mild schizophrenia. All of these problems were worsened by his use of marijuana. Alexa Cruz, Anderson’s girlfriend, said:
“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.”
Cruz said that she did not know of a struggle between Anderson and the police until she arrived at the hospital to visit him later in the afternoon.
“I was horrified; I couldn’t even speak or breathe. I just kept asking, ‘What happened? What happened?'” said Cruz. “I was expecting him to be out of it from medications; not all beaten up with a breathing tube.”
The incident began around 1:30 a.m. at Cruz’s apartment. Anderson supposedly requested that he be transported to the hospital in handcuffs. Cruz also said that when Anderson left the apartment he had no bruises or scratches on his body. When she saw him in the hospital he was covered in bruises and scratches.
“He put his hands behind his back; he was very cooperative,” Cruz said. “They didn’t say anything about arrest. I think he just really wanted to get help.”
Jack Lawrence, a fellow porn star, tweeted about Anderson’s death:
“I still can’t believe that Sledge Anderson is gone. Nine years I have known him. Just THE nicest guy EVER, & so respectful 2 the women in the biz.”