Tania Mendoza, a Mexican movie star and singer, was killed by a gunman this week while waiting outside her 11-year-old son’s soccer practice in Cuernavaca, Mexico, reports say. She was 42.
According to the BBC, Mendoza was shot by a gunman, who rode up on the back of a motorbike driven by a second assailant. The gunman got off and opened fire with several other parents in the area.
Mendoza, who was shot multiple times, was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.
No arrests have been made in the shooting, which took place Tuesday in the Morelos state city of Cuernavaca, 35 miles south of Mexico City.
Mendoza appeared in more than 20 TV shows and movies from 1998 to 2012, highlighted by a lead role in the 2005 film “La Mera Reyna del Sur.”
In recent years, Mendoza had been pursuing a career as a singer. She had recorded and released five albums, including 2018’s “Amanecí En Tus Brazos.”
Reports say police are investigating Mendoza’s killing as a gender-related murder. Femicide, as it’s called, has plagued Mexico in recent years, while drug-cartel violence continues to punctuate the country’s surge in crime.
Mendoza’s killing comes 11 years after she was kidnapped with her husband and son, then six months old, and later released. She reportedly had also been the victim of several death threats since her kidnapping.