Background: News footage outside the salon where Valeria Marquez was fatally shot during a livestream (Imagen Noticias/YouTube). Inset: Valeria Marquez during a livestream just before the shooting (Valeria Marquez/TikTok).
A Mexican beauty influencer was shot multiple times while she conducted a livestream on TikTok from the salon where she worked.
Valeria Márquez, 23, was tragically shot on camera while streaming live on TikTok, where she had 113,000 followers, as reported by The New York Times. Márquez was casually seated in front of the camera at her workplace in a salon in Zapopan, Mexico, mentioning that someone had left a gift for her. She proceeded to unwrap the package to discover its contents.
“It’s a little piglet!” she exclaimed in Spanish, referring to the stuffed plush toy she then held in her lap.
With the stuffed piglet on her lap, Márquez appeared to be looking past the camera. According to Reuters, she was overheard saying “They’re coming,” followed by another person asking, “Hey, Vale?” Her response was, “Yes,” before she 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.
