A Mexican social media influencer was shot dead while livestreaming at a beauty salon in a region renowned for cartel violence, with prosecutors saying she was the victim of a targeted attack by a hitman.
Valeria Márquez, 23, a model and beauty influencer with more than 113,000 followers on TikTok, collapsed on camera after being shot in the head and chest by a masked gunman who fled the scene on a motorbike with an accomplice, prosecutors said.
The brazen murder is being investigated as femicide, a gender-based crime under Mexican law, with Mexican President Claudia extending her condolences to Márquez’s family and saying that Mexico’s security cabinet is working to solve the murder with the prosecutor’s office.
Hours before the grisly killing, Márquez had expressed concern that two men had arrived at the salon in the state of Jalisco near Guadalajara in western Mexico, claiming to have a “very expensive” gift that needed to be delivered to her in person but she wasn’t there at the time, according to a witness.
