Beauty influencer shot dead while live on TikTok

A social media influencer was shot to death while she was doing a livestream on TikTok at her beauty salon in central Mexico, state authorities said on Wednesday.

23-year-old Valeria Marquez is seen looking up at someone off the camera, still live on TikTok, responding to a voice in the background asking, “Hey, Vale?”

“Yes,” she said, before muting the sound on the live broadcast.

Within seconds she was appeared to be shot in the abdomen and then in the head. She collapsed, dying instantly.

The violent murder of the popular influencer in the city of Zapopan has shocked the nation and the online community. She had over 200,000 followers on TikTok.

What did authorities say?

“The victim is someone with an active presence and influence on social media,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “A man entered the premises and apparently fired a gun at her,” it added.

Local media reported that the shooter pretended to bring her a gift.

The motive of the crime was not immediately known.

The beauty salon in Zapopan is next to the major city of Guadalajara in the central state of Jalisco — a hotbed of criminal activity and home to one of Mexico’s most violent drug trafficking group, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

However, the state security coordinator Roberto Alarcon told reporters investigators had not found any evidence that a criminal group was behind the shooting.

Zapopan Mayor Juan Jose Frangie said his office had no record of the model requesting help from authorities due to threats from criminal gangs. “It’s incredible that you’re making a video and then you’re murdered. A femicide is the worst thing,” Frangie said.

Mexico’s femicide problem

Mexico is tied with Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia as nations with the fourth highest rates of femicide in the the Latin American region, as per the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

It shows 1.3 such deaths occured for every 100,000 women in 2023.

In another incident, a former congressman Luis Armando Cordova Diaz was also shot dead in a cafe in the area, hours after Marquez’ death.