A social media influencer and comedian with 600,000 TikTok followers has been shot dead in Mexico by two armed gunmen riding motorcycles. Cesar Gastelum died on Tuesday (August 4) outside a fast food restaurant in Culiacan, local authorities confirmed. A security official said a “significant security operation” is now underway to investigate the killing.
Cesar was seen being murdered while filming a livestream on TikTok – he was approached by two people on a motorbike, both wearing helmets, one of whom fired a gun directly at him. It is not the first time an influencer has been shot and killed on livestream in the country, with beauty TikToker Valeria Marquez shot dead in May 2025 at the salon where she worked.
Tributes have flooded in for Cesar, with one fan writing: “RIP bro, fly high.”
Someone else said: “How sad – our own people killing us.”
And a third wrote: “Rest in peace, Cesar.”
The news comes just a day after reality star Mano Machinek died at the age of 37 in a horrific car crash while filming an advert in Italy.
The model was driving a blue Porsche 993 RS when the vehicle is understood to have veered off the road on Mottarone Mountain near Gignese last Thursday.
Rescuers succeeded in extracting Mano from the wreckage and administered CPR, but tragically he could not be revived. The Porsche had been rented for the production and did not belong to Mano personally.