Mexican influencer Cesar Gastelum shot dead during Culiacan livestream

A Mexican content creator was shot to death Tuesday night while livestreaming outside a fast-food restaurant in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, as two people on a motorcycle opened fire in view of his followers.

Cesar Gastelum, 24, had built a following of more than 577,000 on TikTok with comedy sketches and content inspired by Sinaloa culture, but the livestream itself was carried on a different platform: multiple outlets, including Dexerto and PRIMETIMER, identified the broadcast as taking place on Kick, where Gastelum also maintained an account and shared videos about travel, automobiles and entertainment. Reuters and CBS News, in describing the shooting, referred to it only as a livestream on social media without specifying the platform, so that detail should be treated as reported rather than independently confirmed by the wire.

Mr. Gastelum was standing with two friends outside a KFC restaurant — all dressed as food delivery workers as part of a challenge — in the Tres Rios neighborhood when a motorcycle carrying two helmeted individuals pulled up nearby. In footage of the livestream, the driver of the motorcycle appeared to fire a gun directly at Gastelum, according to a report from CBS News. His two companions were not harmed. 

Local police initially reported the death of a delivery worker before later identifying the victim as Mr. Gastelum. The livestream was halted and later removed from the platform, though footage and images of the attack continued to circulate online. A security official in Sinaloa state confirmed Gastelum’s death and said a significant security operation was underway. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her Wednesday morning news conference that authorities are working to locate those responsible. Mexico’s Security Cabinet said in a statement that it is working with the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office to solve the case, and that among the lines of investigation are various social media posts, some of which referred to a faction of a criminal group. Authorities are also analyzing surveillance footage and ballistic evidence, the agency said. Officials have not confirmed a motive, and have not linked the killing to the wider cartel conflict.

The attack took place in a busy shopping plaza near the Sinaloa prosecutor’s office in Culiacan, and soldiers and police were deployed while forensic experts collected evidence and removed the body. The killing comes amid persistent violence between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel — Los Chapitos and La Mayiza — fighting for control of the region following an internal split. According to a tally cited by the outlet Infobae, Mr. Gastelum is at least the 10th content creator killed in Sinaloa in recent years. 

The shooting echoes the May 2025 killing of Mexican beauty influencer Valeria Marquez, 23, who was fatally shot at the salon where she worked in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara in Jalisco state. A man entered the premises and apparently fired a gun at her, according to the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, and her death was investigated as a femicide under Mexican law. 

In July, Mexican authorities announced the arrest in Jalisco of Ramon Angel Alvarez Ayala, identified by Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch as the leader of a criminal cell linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Authorities have connected Alvarez Ayala to the Marquez killing and accused him of ordering and financing the November 2025 murder of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo.

In January 2025, leaflets were reportedly dropped from an airplane over Culiacan accusing a group of singers and influencers, without evidence, of financing or collaborating with the Los Chapitos faction. Two of the content creators named on those leaflets, Miguel Vivanco and Leobardo Aispuro, were later found dead. Gastelum had publicly paid tribute to Aispuro following his killing.