Background: News footage outside the salon where Valeria Marquez was shot dead during a livestream (Imagen Noticias/YouTube). Inset: Valeria Marquez during a livestream moments before she was gunned down (Valeria Marquez/TikTok).
A Mexican beauty influencer was shot multiple times while she conducted a livestream on TikTok from the salon where she worked.
The fatal shooting of Valeria Márquez, 23, was caught on camera on Tuesday as the social media star broadcast to a live audience on TikTok, where she had amassed 113,000 followers, according to The New York Times. Márquez was casually sitting in front of the camera while at a salon in Zapopan, Mexico, where she was employed as she revealed that someone had dropped off a gift for her. She unwrapped the parcel to reveal what was inside.
“It’s a little piglet!” she exclaimed in Spanish, referring to the stuffed plush toy she then held in her lap.
As she held the stuffed piglet in her lap, Márquez can be seen gazing beyond the camera. Reuters reported that she was heard saying “They’re coming,” followed by another voice saying, “Hey, Vale?” She responded, “Yes,” then muted the stream.
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Seconds later, Márquez clutched her midsection as bullets hit her in the chest and the head, killing her instantly. The livestream kept going until another woman picked up the phone and shut it down.
The New York Times reported that Denis Rodríguez, a spokesman for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, said that two men approached the salon on motorcycles. One of them, wearing a mask, entered the salon and asked for Márquez. When she confirmed who she was, he shot her, ran out of the salon, and fled on his motorcycle.
The Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office said it was investigating the shooting as a femicide, or the deliberate targeting of women and girls for murder.
Rodríguez said that Márquez likely did not know her alleged killer, that he was “simply her executioner.” He also stated that the two men had come by the salon earlier in the day, telling other employees that they had a “gift” to deliver to Márquez.
Reuters reported that Márquez had mentioned earlier in her livestream that she was told someone came by the salon when she was not there, saying they had an “expensive gift” for her. In their reporting on that moment of the livestream, Reuters noted that Márquez appeared concerned.
