A Mexican social media influencer was shot useless whereas livestreaming at a magnificence salon in a area famend for cartel violence, with prosecutors saying she was the sufferer of a focused assault by a hitman.
Valeria Márquez, 23, a mannequin and wonder influencer with greater than 113,000 followers on TikTok, collapsed on digicam after being shot within the head and chest by a masked gunman who fled the scene on a bike with an confederate, prosecutors mentioned.
The brazen murder is being investigated as femicide, a gender-based crime below Mexican legislation, with Mexican President Claudia extending her condolences to Márquez’s household and saying that Mexico’s safety cupboard is working to unravel the homicide with the prosecutor’s workplace.
Mexican social media influencer Valeria Márquez was fatally shot throughout a livestream. Authorities suspect she was the sufferer of a focused hit linked to cartel violence, and it’s being investigated as femicide. (@v___marquez/by way of Instagram)
Hours earlier than the grisly killing, Márquez had expressed concern that two males had arrived on the salon within the state of Jalisco close to Guadalajara in western Mexico, claiming to have a “very costly” reward that wanted to be delivered to her in particular person however she wasn’t there on the time, in accordance with a witness.
“Possibly they had been going to kill me,” Márquez mentioned in her video minutes earlier than she was killed whereas livestreaming from the salon. “Have been they going to come back and take me away, or what? I’m frightened.”
When the lads returned, they requested if it was Márquez who was now within the salon.
She was heard saying, “They’re coming,” earlier than a voice within the background requested, “Hey, Vale?”
“Sure,” Marquez replied, simply earlier than muting the sound on the livestream.
Moments later, she was shot to demise. An individual appeared to choose up her telephone, with their face briefly displaying on the livestream earlier than the video ended.
Denis Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned investigators imagine that the lads had been employed assassins.
Associates and kin held a funeral for the slain influencer on Thursday. (Reuters)
WEALTHY SUBURB ROCKED BY SUSPECTED CARTEL MURDER-FOR-HIRE SHOWS DRUG LORDS’ REACH ACROSS US: EXPERT
“The aggressor arrived asking if the sufferer (Márquez) was there. So it seems he didn’t know her,” Rodríguez mentioned. “With that, you possibly can deduce — with out leaping to conclusions — that this was an individual who was paid. It was clearly somebody who got here with a function.”
Márquez was handed a stuffed animal and a bag of Starbucks espresso whereas she was on the livestream earlier than the deadly photographs rang out.
The area is firmly managed by some of the highly effective cartels in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and murders by employed weapons on bikes, usually generally known as “sicarios,” have turn out to be a typical incidence.
Rodríguez mentioned that authorities had been additionally investigating if the demise was related to the homicide of a former congressman simply hours earlier in the identical space of Guadalajara, additionally carried out by two males on a motorbike.
The killing has despatched shockwaves by way of a rustic that faces excessive ranges of violence in opposition to girls.
Sheinbaum mentioned on Thursday that an investigation is below technique to first discover these accountable and the motive behind this case.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum prolonged her condolences to Márquez’s household. (Reuters)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We’re working to search out these accountable and decide the motive behind this case. Clearly, we specific our solidarity with the household throughout this unlucky scenario. Our solidarity goes out to her household,” she mentioned.
Associates and kin held a funeral for the slain influencer on Thursday.
Jalisco is ranked sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states, together with Mexico City, for homicides, with 909 recorded there because the starting of Sheinbaum’s time period in October 2024, in accordance with information consultancy TResearch.
Fox Information’ Alexis McAdams, The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
