On March 31, 1995, Selena went to meet Saldívar at a Days Inn Motel in her hometown of Corpus Christi, but she wouldn’t make it out alive (via Esquire). When Selena entered the room, the two argued before Saldívar pulled out a .38-caliber handgun and shot Selena in the shoulder. What followed was a scene of hysteria, bloodshed, and betrayal that motel workers recounted in court some months later (via AP News).

Bleeding from the wound in her shoulder, Selena ran from the hotel room after she was shot, pleading for help and telling the hotel workers the name and room of her attacker.  In pursuit was Saldívar, who ran behind Selena, pointing a gun at her, and calling her, “B****!” 

Ultimately, the wound, which hit a major artery near Selena’s heart, bled out and she collapsed, according to AP News. One witness recounted Selena, “slowly laid herself down,” and then she “saw a puddle of blood form.”

Afterward, Saldívar fled to her pickup truck, where she threatened to take her own life for nine hours before being talked down by the police and confessing to the shooting. All the while, per Esquire, she kept saying: “I can’t believe I killed my best friend.”