Mexican TikTok influencer César Gastélum was shot dead on Tuesday evening while livestreaming with two friends outside a fast-food restaurant in Culiacán, the capital of the violence-scarred northwestern state of Sinaloa, according to local and federal authorities.
Gastélum, 25, who had amassed close to 600,000 followers on TikTok for his comedy content, was broadcasting live around 8 p.m. local time outside a KFC in Culiacán when two people on a motorcycle, both wearing helmets, approached him and his friends.
In footage of the livestream reviewed by Reuters, the driver of the motorcycle appeared to fire a gun directly at Gastélum. The stream was cut short and later taken down by the platform, though clips and images of the attack have continued to circulate online.
Gastélum and his companions were dressed as food delivery workers as part of a content “challenge” at the time of the shooting. That detail initially confused first responders: local police first reported the death of a delivery worker before later identifying the victim as Gastélum. The attack took place in a busy shopping plaza near the Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office.
A security official in Sinaloa state confirmed Gastélum’s death and said a significant security operation was underway in the aftermath.
No arrests have been made. Federal authorities and the Sinaloa Prosecutor’s Office are reviewing surveillance footage and other evidence in an effort to identify the shooters.
On Wednesday, Mexico’s Federal Security Cabinet said investigators are examining whether the attack may be linked to posts Gastélum made on social media, including one in which he referenced a faction of a criminal organization.
The killing comes amid a bloody, ongoing turf war in Sinaloa. According to the International Crisis Group, two rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Mayos and Los Chapitos, have been clashing since September 2024 for control of Culiacán, Mazatlán and other parts of the state.
Both factions are reported to rely on firearms, armored vehicles, and even drones, contributing to high levels of violence that have disrupted daily life across the region.
The factions take their names from Sinaloa Cartel founders Ismael “Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, rivals who are both now serving life sentences in the United States on drug-trafficking charges.
Local media say around a dozen influencers, some allegedly with ties to criminal groups, have been killed in Sinaloa in recent years, in a district troubled by internal cartel power struggles.
Gastélum’s death echoes the killing of another young TikTok personality just over a year earlier. In May 2025, beauty influencer Valeria Márquez, 23, was shot dead while livestreaming at a beauty salon in Zapopan, Jalisco, when a masked gunman shot her in the head and chest before fleeing on a motorbike with an accomplice.
Prosecutors treated that killing as a targeted, paid hit rather than a random act of violence. Investigators later arrested Ramón Ángel Álvarez Ayala, identified by federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch as the leader of “Los Rs,” a cell linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in connection with Márquez’s murder.
Sinaloa’s influencer community has faced direct threats before. In January 2025, a small aircraft reportedly dropped leaflets over Culiacán threatening roughly 20 artists and YouTubers over their alleged dealings with a rival cartel faction.
Authorities have not disclosed a formal motive for Gastélum’s killing, and it remains unclear whether he had received specific threats beforehand.
His death adds to a growing, disturbing tally of content creators killed on camera in Mexico, a country where cartel violence increasingly intersects with the platforms young people use to build their livelihoods and audiences.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The killing of César Gastélum, shot dead mid-livestream in Culiacán while dressed for a harmless delivery-worker “challenge,” underscores a disturbing trend in Mexico: livestreaming has become a lethal risk for influencers operating in cartel-contested territory.
With Sinaloa’s Los Mayos and Los Chapitos factions locked in an ongoing turf war, and investigators now probing whether Gastélum’s own social media posts referencing a criminal faction triggered the attack, his death echoes Valeria Márquez’s 2025 murder and roughly a dozen other influencer killings in the region.
Online visibility itself has become dangerous in areas where cartels treat content creators and their platforms as targets.
