A 23-year-old TikTok influencer was shot and killed while livestreaming by a man who reportedly showed up at her beauty salon pretending to bring her a gift in Jalisco, Mexico, on Tuesday.
Valeria Márquez was fatally shot in the middle of a livestream while she was sitting in her beauty salon, Blossom The Beauty Lounge, in Jalisco, the state prosecutor’s office said, according to a report by El País.
The Mexican social media influencer was fatally attacked when a man entered the salon — located in the Zapopan suburb of the city of Guadalajara — “and apparently fired a gun at her,” the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said.
Purported video footage of the influencer’s last livestream circulating [Editor’s note: graphic footage] on X shows Márquez sitting at a table, holding a pink stuffed animal, and saying “Hello” to a man off-camera, who apparently entered the salon.
“Are you Valeria?” the man asks, to which Márquez replies, “Yes.”
Seconds later, the TikTok influencer appears to be shot multiple times, before slumping lifeless over the table, with blood seemingly streaked through her hair.
The deadly footage ends when someone in the salon picks up Márquez’s phone and stops the recording, according to a report by BBC News.
Additional video posted to social media shows Márquez speaking on her livestream moments before the gunman entered the establishment.
In the footage, the TikTok influencer appears worried as she mentions having received a call from a friend asking if a delivery could be made to her salon, El País reported.
The video shows Márquez talking to another woman off-camera, who explains that the person didn’t want to make the delivery unless the social media influencer was in the salon, because the gift was “too expensive.”
The person preferred waiting until Márquez was physically in the establishment before delivering the gift, the woman said.
“Maybe they were going to kill me,” the TikTok influencer replies in the video, to which the woman off-camera replies, “No, they were going to give you a gift, an expensive gift.”
“Expensive…” Márquez says with apparent suspicion, adding, “I was worried that they were saying you couldn’t see their face — and that he said he would come back in an hour.”
“And what did he come on, a motorcycle? Were they going to pick me up or what?” the beauty influencer added.
Moments later, while still livestreaming on her cell phone, Márquez is heard responding to the supposed delivery man, before muting her livestream, then being shot on camera.
Authorities arrived at the scene and confirmed Marquez’s death, the state prosecutor said. The identity of the suspect remains unclear.
While the attacker’s motive has not yet been determined, Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office announced that the case is being investigated as a “femicide,” referring to when women and girls are killed due to their sex.
Sex-based violence “is highly common in Mexico where the UN reports ten women or girls are murdered every day by partners or family members,” BBC News noted.
Márquez’s murder “shocked society and revealed the normalization of violence in a state like Jalisco, and in the municipality of Zapopan — located in the metropolitan area of the capital, Guadalajara,” El País reported.
Márquez’s TikTok account has since been deleted.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for – News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
