Exorcism ends in granddad’s death

Officers responding to a report of an exorcism used stun guns to subdue a man who was choking his 3-year-old granddaughter and later died, police said.

The child and her mother, 19, were hospitalized. Both were in the room during the struggle between police and Ronald Marquez, 49.

Officers heard screams coming from a bedroom and found Marquez and the bloodied girl crying and gasping, police said. A bloody, naked woman -- whom police later determined to be Marquez’s daughter and the girl’s mother -- was in the room chanting “something that was religious in nature,” officers said.

Marquez was handcuffed after a struggle with officers and initially appeared normal, police said, but then he stopped breathing. The cause of death was not immediately known.