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Warning: This article contains allegations of violence which some readers may find distressing.
Social media influencer and TikTok star Valeria Márquez, 23, was shot and killed while working at her beauty salon in Jalisco, Mexico this week, as two gunmen entered the building and shot her while she was live streaming on TikTok.
Videos and clips from Márquez's live stream were being shared across social media, showing the moment that she was shot twice by the assailants on May 14, and officials have now verified the legitimacy of the videos, as reported by the Independent.
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Márquez had amassed over 200,000 followers on various social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, and had opened her own beauty lounge last year called 'Blossom' alongside her existing modelling work.
She had also won a local beauty contest in 2021, earning herself the title of 'Miss Rostro' which she proudly displayed on her social media profiles.
However, her life was tragically cut short during a live stream, when two men entered the beauty salon and handed her a small parcel, which when unwrapped was revealed to be, in Valeria's own words, a 'little piglet' - likely a stuffed animal of sorts.
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After opening the gift she began interacting with it and showing the viewers of her live stream, before turning her face away from the camera to likely face the two men that had handed it over.
It was in that moment that she was shot, and was seen clutching her chest and slumping over in her chair. Speaking to the New York Times, Denis Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office, detailed that Márquez was "still sitting in the chair where she was surprised with that doll, the little pig, right there in her arms."
The two assailants quickly fled the scene after Valeria was shot, and an unidentified woman turned off the live stream shortly after. TikTok has since removed the livestream and seemingly disabled her account on the platform, but aforementioned clips of the event are still circulating social media.
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Officials currently don't have any suspects for the crime, and it has been indicated that it's highly likely that the two men didn't know Márquez, and were simply her 'executioners'.
Márquez's death comes shortly after the shooting of Veracruz mayoral candidate Yesenia Lara Gutiérrez, who was killed alongside three others during a campaign march in the city on May 11, and is considered part of a larger, frightening trend of femicide across Mexico as a whole.
Popular American streamer Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa was also subject to an armed robbery that left her 'covered in blood' earlier this year, as she recalled how she feared for her life in her own home, claiming that she might never return to social media after the incident.