A 31-year-old man from Sinaloa was gunned down Tuesday afternoon on a residential street in Tijuana’s La Mesa district, according to municipal authorities and multiple local news outlets.
Police identified the victim as Usiel Fernando Castelo Beltrán. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found him face down on Calle Monte Urales in the Lomas Conjunto Residencial neighborhood. He had been shot multiple times.
California-Plated Vehicle Found at Scene
A sedan with California license plates was parked next to the victim’s body. Red Cross paramedics arrived and confirmed Castelo Beltrán was dead at the scene. Two male suspects fled the area on foot after the attack, and their identities remain unknown.
Agents from the Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), Baja California’s state attorney general’s office, processed the crime scene and opened a homicide investigation. No arrests have been reported.
Neighborhood Has Seen Violence Before
Lomas Conjunto Residencial is a suburban-style development in the La Mesa delegation, located southeast of central Tijuana and well away from the city’s main tourist corridors. The neighborhood sits roughly 15 minutes by car from the San Ysidro border crossing.
Despite its quiet appearance, the area has been the site of previous violent incidents. In July 2023, a gunman attacked the bodyguard of a local businessman outside a home on Calle Monte Athos, just blocks from Tuesday’s shooting. Both the bodyguard and the attacker died in that exchange of gunfire, according to a report by Milenio at the time.
The California plates on the vehicle found Tuesday could point to cross-border ties, though authorities have not commented on a possible motive. Sinaloa-born individuals have frequently appeared in Tijuana homicide cases tied to drug trafficking disputes, but investigators have released no information linking this killing to organized crime.
Tijuana recorded over 1,500 homicides in 2024, making it one of Mexico’s deadliest cities. The killing was first reported by Jornada BC and confirmed by El Imparcial and El Mexicano.