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‘Selena: The Real Story’ recreates intense moments of negotiator preventing the killer from shooting herself

In the new special, negotiator Larry Young goes into details about the standoff with Selena's killer Yolanda Saldivar
UPDATED FEB 2, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

The story of Tejano superstar Selena’s rise to fame and tragic death was popularized by a film starring Jennifer Lopez in her first major role. The singer’s impact on music and fashion was unprecedented, and she is credited with bringing international fame to Tejano music and inspiring many young artistes that followed - including a young girl from Houston, Texas who would later come to be known as Beyoncé!

'Selena: The Real Story' shows us how before she reached the heights of her fame, Selena convinced her father to accept Yolanda Saldivar as her official fan club president. Saldivar would go on to become Selena’s business manager for her boutique and even took over the artist’s schedule. When it was discovered that Saldivar was stealing money from both the fan club and from Selena’s boutique, a confrontation ensued resulting in the untimely death of the star.

While Selena had fled Saldivar’s room to try and ask for help, the latter attempted to flee the scene herself but was prevented from doing so by the police who had already been alerted by motel staff. As she considered her options, Saldivar decided there was no way out - and put the gun that killed Selena to her own head.

After a standoff that lasted several hours, specialist negotiator Larry Young was brought in. He used a special negotiator’s phone set up in the motel office to communicate with Saldivar. The conversation between the two would be the one in which Saldivar infamously said “I wanna kill myself...I don’t deserve to live, look at what I’ve done to my best friend.” Young tried to appeal to Saldivar in many different ways, including reminding her of her family.

Young says Saldivar was desperate, crying and screaming that she shot her best friend and didn’t mean to. She refused to step out of her car, but as the conversation continued, she seemed to be willing to change her mind. And then something chilling happened - Young heard the radio inside Saldivar’s pick-up reporting on the death of Tejano superstar Selena.

Young, recognizing the severity of the situation, kept Saldivar’s focus on him, saying: “Yolanda, turn the radio off so I can talk to you, please.” In the meantime, he asked his associates to call the radio station and tell them to stop reporting on Selena’s death. With only a few seconds to craft a plan, Young managed to find a way to prevent Saldivar from killing herself, slowly using the relationship between her and Selena to convince her to give herself up. He says to Saldivar, “I understand that Selena’s nickname for you was Buffy. Do you think that she would want Buffy to hurt herself?”

Saldivar eventually gave herself up and stood trial for the murder of Selena Quintanilla.

Young says Selena had such a profound impact on Saldivar’s life that the anger and resentment over losing her is what led to her ultimately shooting and killing the singer. Saldivar has made many claims about the incident in the years that followed, but she has never revealed her true motive for killing Selena.

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