Animatronics, super-intelligent apes, 20-year-olds with their hair in pigtails like in porno; all these things would be preferable to using child actors. Another former child actor was shot to death by police this week after a standoff. 38-year-old Manuel Benitez…
…took his 6-year-old son hostage at gunpoint, barricaded himself and the child inside an El Monte restaurant bathroom, and then triggered a bloody standoff that left the suspect dead and the boy wounded.
Son? Not only are we letting former child actors roam freely, they’ve the opportunity to reproduce? This country’s going straight down the shitter, I’m telling you.
Benitez worked as a child actor under the stage name, Mark Everett. He had acting roles in the movies “Stand and Deliver” and “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” Everett also appeared in the television series “Galactica 1980″ and “Highway to Heaven.”
Benitez was wanted in connection with the June 21, 2004, murder of his girlfriend, Stephanie Spears… Benitez/Everett allegedly bludgeoned his girlfriend to death with a dumbbell inside their home during a fit of rage over a bad break-up.
The events that culminated with Benitez’s death began about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when El Monte police responded to a call of a suspicious person with a child near the intersection of Ramona Boulevard and Santa Anita Avenue, sheriff’s Sgt. David Infante said.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found Benitez armed with a handgun. Benitez then reportedly grabbed his son and positioned him between himself and police…
Benitez then took the boy inside Tai Pan Chinese Food, at 3580 Santa Anita Ave., and locked himself and the child inside a bathroom, threatening to kill himself, Benjamin, and any responding officers, Infante said.
Crisis negotiators entered the restaurant, establishing communication with the man for roughly two hours, but he refused to comply with their requests to surrender or release the child, Infante said.
Hours into the standoff, the bathroom door opened, and the Special Weapons Crisis Entry Team [Ed Note: Wha?] deployed a flash-bang device inside the room. The team then entered the bathroom, attempting to rescue the boy and take the suspect into custody, he said.
Then, “an officer-involved shooting occurred,” Infante said. The suspect suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. Two handguns in Benitez’s possession were recovered following the shooting, Infante said. [MSNBC]
In related news, shooting by police has now become the third leading cause of death among former child actors, behind drug overdose and autoerotic asphyxiation accident, respectively.
