The investigation is continuing Saturday into the death of 19-year-old TikTok star Cooper Noriega, who was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive in Burbank just hours after posting a video about dying young.
Noriega was found at 4:20 p.m. Thursday in a mall parking lot in the 500 block of North First Street, near the Golden State (5) Freeway, and was pronounced dead at the scene, Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, told City News Service.
Ardalani said Noriega’s cause of death is being deferred, but TMZ reported foul play is not suspected.
Noriega had more than 1.7 million followers on TikTok, and earlier Thursday he posted a video of himself lying in bed with the caption “Who else b thinking they gon (die) young af.”
He frequently used his platform to speak about addiction and mental health issues and said he had struggled with from a young age.
On June 5, Noriega started a group on the Discord instant messaging site where his followers could share their experiences with mental health challenges. It already has more than 15,000 members.
“I would like to use the influence I’ve been given to create a space built on spreading awareness and normalizing talking about mental illness,” Noriega said Monday in a post on Instagram.
His survivors include a sister, Parker, who is also a TikTok influencer, and their parents, Treva and Harold. Noriega would have turned 20 on June 28.