Porn Actor 'Sledge Hammer' Dies After Confrontation with LAPD

The Los Angeles porn actor known as the Sledge Hammer died over the weekend after a confrontation with LAPD officers. Accounts of what transpired seem to diverge greatly. Here's the LAPD's take, via the LA Times. The incident began Sunday when authorities responded to a call of an attempted suicide in the Reseda area. When paramedics and officers arrived they found Marland Anderson, known as Sledge Hammer on screen, with his girlfriend. Anderson had suffered a knife injury, Lt. Andrew Neiman said. The girlfriend told officers Anderson tried to hurt himself with the knife and she pried it away from him, Neiman said. He was then handcuffed to a gurney by police for transportation in an ambulance. Once inside the ambulance, Neiman said, Anderson tried to stand up, but acted with such force that he broke the gurney free from a floor lock and broke the handcuff. To restrain Anderson, an officer then used a Taser but it failed to stop the agitated actor, Neiman said. Several officers eventually managed to restrain Anderson, Neiman said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died Friday morning, Neiman said. Sledge Hammer's friend Stoney Curtis, however, tells a different story to AVN News. According to Curtis, who is acknowledged by several as Hammer's best friend in the industry, the beefy actor was suffering from depression and paranoia due to a combination of genetics and frequent marijuana use. This reportedly led to a severe anxiety attack last Sunday night, which prompted his girlfriend to call for an ambulance to take him to a hospital for treatment. Curtis said that the ambulance arrived, and so did members of the Los Angeles Police Department, who helped him from his house to the ambulance. When Hammer balked at remaining in the cramped rear section of the vehicle, the emergency medical technicians allowed him to exit—but apparently because of Hammer's continued anxiety, called the police back to the scene. What happened next is unclear, but Curtis believes that when the cops arrived, Hammer'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. Curtis says the actor's family is seeking legal council for an excessive force claim.

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Porn Actor 'Sledge Hammer' Dies After Confrontation with LAPD

Matthew Fleischer

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Matthew Fleischer