Aaliyah Salazar Monte Vista Colorado teen girl, 14, shot & killed while filming TikTok video, 3 arrested. Family say they do not believe shooting was accidental.
Was one teen girl’s shooting death an accident or by design? A teen girl was fatally shot in the head while making TikTok dance videos at a Colorado home earlier this month according to reports.
Aaliyah Salazar, 14, was dancing on video with two other minors when she was shot with a Glock 19 pistol on Aug. 7 inside a Monte Vista home, according to an arrest warrant affidavit reviewed by KRDO-TV.
Three suspects, including two teen girls, were arrested.
One of the teen suspects told police she saw the other suspect point and shoot the victim before tossing the gun on a nearby bed in the home, according to the affidavit.
When asked if the shooting could’ve been an accident, the girl replied to authorities ‘it could be (an) accident.’
‘She loved people and people loved her.’
One of the suspects had access to the gun through her boyfriend, who owned it legally, the affidavit stated. She then allegedly showed it to the other two girls while they were making the videos.
A TikTok video recorded moments before the shooting showed the victim dancing while a person in the background is ‘fiddling with something on the bed,’ the affidavit reportedly states.
Emiliano Vargas, 21 was charged with permitting or providing a minor with a firearm and the two unnamed teens were hit with reckless manslaughter and possession of a handgun by juveniles, Monte Vista police said.
The two minors on Monday were charged with felony manslaughter and misdemeanor possession of a weapon. If convicted, they could face a maximum of six years, in Colorado’s youth offender system. The potential six years max has in turn incensed Salazar’s relatives, 9 News reported.
‘The frustration I’ve got with that is if you take a life you should have to pay for it dearly,’ grandfather Gary Salazar told 9 News. ‘Not with a slap on the hand and say don’t do it again.’
‘She could go into a store and come out with 20 new friends,’ the heartbroken grandfather said.
Adding, ‘She loved people and people loved her.’
Aaliyah Salazar’s family believes the judicial system is more focused on the future of those charged than the future Aaliyah lost. https://t.co/jjLdGH74VZ
— WCNC Charlotte (@wcnc) August 30, 2022
Was shooting death accidental?
Asked if the shooting was an accident, the teen’s family responded, ‘that the shooting was done on purpose and didn’t believe it to be an accident.’
Vargas told police he was not at the house, owned by his grandmother, when the gun was fired, according to the affidavit. Vargas and one of the suspects, his 17-year-old girlfriend, live in the home, KRDO reported, citing the arrest warrant document.
The weapon was kept out in the open on a shelf in the home, the police report stated and authorities also saw photos of minors with the gun in May of this year.
The victim and gun were both found in the same room when police arrived, but authorities don’t believe she shot herself, the affidavit reportedly stated.
A new district attorney will start in September, and officials said they would review the case.
