A 15-year-old girl reportedly accidentally killed herself while she was precariously posing with an Uzi gun to record a TikTok video in Sinaloa, Mexico last month.
The tragic turn of events transpired while 15-year-old Yazmín Esmeralda, along with her mother and younger brother, was visiting her grandmother in the small town of Guasave, not far from Sinaloa’s west coast.
While she was at her grandmother's house, she found the weapon at the bottom of a bedroom closet. She then asked her brother to film her holding the gun so she could upload it onto the social media platform TikTok. However, while they were trying to record the video, the gun went off by accident and instantly killed her, Vice reported.
According to Sinaloa’s state prosecutor Sara Bruna Quiñonez Estrada, it remains unclear how the automatic weapon came to be in the house. Estrada said that the Mexican army stopped using 9mm Uzis after it was found that the safety lock on the gun was difficult to handle and that the weapon had the tendency to go off accidentally and cause unintended casualties.
“The fact that there were weapons in the house, that weren’t controlled, is the responsibility of the adults who knew there were children in the house,” said Estrada.
“That she chose to record a clip [in that way] shows that our youth is immersed in that culture,” she continued. “It’s what they hear about at all hours.”
According to Estrada, officials remain confused about the firearm made it into the residence as it is extremely difficult for civilians to acquire and own firearms in Mexico. Also, gun permits for civilians tend to be expensive and often take years to process. There is also only one official gun shop in the country.
In a similar but unrelated incident, a 9-year-old boy reportedly accidentally choked himself to death while attempting to do a dare called the "Blackout Challenge" on the social media application TikTok in Tijuana, Mexico in October 2021, Latin Times reported.
The victim, identified only as Matias, who lived in Colonia Hacienda Las Delicias on the south side of Tijuana, Mexico, was reportedly discovered hanging from a tree with a garden hose wrapped around his neck.
The victim's friend told the police that Matias may have died while he was trying out the "blackout challenge" that they had seen on TikTok.
The "blackout challenge" trend is a dare that has made the rounds on the social media app TikTok where users post videos of them choking themselves until they lose consciousness and pass out.
According to TikTok, viewers can tap on the arrow on the right side of the screen while on the video before clicking on the flag that says “report” and select “suicide, self-harm, and dangerous acts" to report the video to the authorities.
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