A 23-year-old beauty influencer has been shot dead on a TikTok live stream while filming content in her salon.
Valeria Marquez, who had amassed nearly 200,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, was livestreaming from her Blossom Beauty Lounge in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, when a man entered the salon and opened fire, as reported by PEOPLE.
The horrific shooting took place around 6:30PM local time on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office.
In the moments leading up to her death, Marquez was seen seated at a table holding a stuffed toy during the live broadcast.
Seconds before the fatal shot, she can be heard saying: “They’re coming,” after someone in the background asks: “Hey, Vale?” She replied: “Yes,” before muting the stream.
Moments later, the fatal blow was delivered.
The stream did not end immediately. A person appeared on camera, briefly showing their face, and picked up her phone to stop the recording.
The prosecutor’s office said that Marquez was killed by a man who fired a gun at her.
Local media reports claim the shooter posed as someone delivering an “expensive gift” — something Marquez had mentioned earlier on the stream, noting she wasn’t planning to wait for them to return.
Authorities have not yet identified a suspect, but the case is being investigated as a femicide — the killing of a woman due to her gender.
In Mexico, femicide often includes factors such as degrading violence, a relationship with the perpetrator, or public display of the victim’s body.
At the scene, police and forensic experts responded to 911 calls, confirmed Marquez’s death, and transported her body for an autopsy and official family identification.
The Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences also collected evidence for further investigation, per BBC News.
The footage of the livestream has since circulated widely on social media, showing Marquez clutching her ribcage after the gunshot before collapsing.
Her final social media posts included selfies and modeling shots — a mirror selfie shared on Instagram Stories expired shortly before news of her death broke.
The tragedy has once again spotlighted the deadly gender-based violence epidemic in Mexico.
According to the UN, 10 women and girls are murdered every day in the country, often by family members or intimate partners, as reported by the Guardian.
Mexico ranks alongside Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia with the fourth-highest femicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, at 1.3 per 100,000 women.
Jalisco itself ranks sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states — including Mexico City — for homicide, with 906 murders recorded since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, according to the TResearch data consultancy.