They went to see a horror movie and ended up being the protagonists of a macabre scene. The tiktoker Anthony Barajas, known on social media as Anthony Michael, and his friend were attacked for no reason at the end of a horror movie at a cinema in the south of California, United States.
Last Monday, July 26, 2021, 19-year-old Anthony Michael and 18-year-old Rylee Goodrich, also a tiktoker, went to see the film “The Forever Purge” (in Spanish “The Forever Purge”), which It is about a totalitarian government that one night a year allows any crime to be committed, including murder.
At the end of the film, around 10 at night, a shooting occurred against the small audience that was there that day at the Regal Edwards Theater, in the city of Corona. The attacker shot the two young men in the head. Goodrich died in the movies, while the famous tiktoker and influencer was taken to a hospital, where he died five days later due to the severity of the injury.
According to theater workers, no one saw or heard anything and only six people, including the two victims, entered the performance of the horror film that ended in a scene of horror and sadness in real life.
Anthony Barajase was a 19-year-old young man who had a million followers on the Tik Toker network and has 26.4 million likes. He died on Saturday after several days hospitalized after the attack, which also claimed the life of his friend Rylee Goodrich. , another popular tiktoker.
In his Instagram account he has more than 62 thousand followers, where he appears modeling summer clothes. He also had accounts on other social networks such as Youtuber.
His relatives have been making a collection to cover medical expenses and the funeral; while his followers held vigils.
The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Joseph Jiménez, was charged with one count of murder. Everything indicates that the murderer acted on his own and there is no indication that he knew the victims or that the activity of the tiktoker was the motive for the crime.
Police arrested Jiménez, called the “Corona murderer” or the “purge murderer,” the day after the attack. He was at his home, where the murder weapon was found. Another charge will be added for murder in the first degree, that of the young Anthony Michael. “It was completely unprovoked and the victims were shot without any prior contact,” Corona Police Corporal Tobias Kouroubacalis said during a press conference on Wednesday, July 28. The suspect has already appeared in court and has been asked for a bond of 2 million dollars.
