Tijuana municipal police arrested two men suspected of killing two people in the Lomas del Matamoros neighborhood, a hillside colonia near the Otay Mesa border crossing. Officers responding to gunfire reports on Thursday found the suspects still at the scene and recovered two firearms, according to a statement from the Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana, Tijuana’s municipal public safety department.
Arrests Came Within Minutes of Shooting in Lomas del Matamoros
The incident occurred Thursday afternoon in Lomas del Matamoros, one of several hillside colonias east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Municipal police officers on patrol heard gunshots and reached the location quickly. They found two individuals dead at the scene and detained two suspects nearby.
Officers seized two firearms from the suspects. Tijuana’s Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), the state attorney general’s office, took custody of the detainees and opened a homicide investigation. The identities of the victims have not been released publicly.
Lomas del Matamoros sits in Tijuana’s eastern hills, part of a corridor of informal settlements that climb the terrain between the Otay industrial zone and the border fence. The colonia has limited street lighting and irregular road access, conditions that complicate police response times in much of eastern Tijuana. But in this case, the proximity of patrol units allowed officers to reach the scene before the suspects fled.
Tijuana Homicide Numbers Remain High in 2025
Tijuana has long ranked among Mexico’s most violent cities by homicide count. In 2024, the municipality recorded more than 1,500 homicides, a figure that, while lower than the peak years of 2018 and 2019, still placed Tijuana near the top of national rankings. The state of Baja California as a whole reported 2,247 homicides in 2024, with Tijuana accounting for roughly two-thirds of that total.
So far in 2025, the pace has not slowed meaningfully. Shootings remain concentrated in eastern and southeastern Tijuana, in colonias like Mariano Matamoros, Sánchez Taboada, Camino Verde, and the Lomas del Matamoros area where Thursday’s incident took place. These neighborhoods sit far from the tourist corridor along Avenida Revolución and the Zona Río commercial district, but they form the residential backbone of the city’s working-class population.
The Otay Mesa area, by contrast, is well known to cross-border commuters and commercial traffic. The Otay Mesa Port of Entry processes thousands of vehicles and pedestrians daily, and the surrounding industrial parks employ tens of thousands of workers. Lomas del Matamoros lies roughly two kilometers south of the border crossing, separated by industrial lots and steep terrain.
On-Scene Arrests Remain Uncommon in Tijuana Homicide Cases
One detail that stands out in Thursday’s incident is the arrest itself. Nationally, Mexico’s conviction rate for homicides remains extremely low. A 2023 report from the organization Impunidad Cero found that fewer than 2% of homicide cases in Baja California resulted in a sentence. Tijuana’s municipal police, while responsible for patrol and initial response, typically hand investigations to the FGE, which then pursues prosecution.
Catching suspects at the scene bypasses one of the biggest obstacles in Mexican criminal investigations: identifying and locating perpetrators after the fact. Tijuana police have increased patrols in high-crime colonias as part of a strategy coordinated with the Guardia Nacional, Mexico’s federal security force. The current municipal administration under Mayor Ismael Burgueño has pledged continued investment in patrol coverage, though the city’s sprawling geography and limited officer-to-resident ratio remain persistent challenges.
For context, Tijuana’s municipal police force numbers roughly 3,000 officers serving a metropolitan area of over two million people. That ratio falls well below international policing benchmarks. Eastern Tijuana, where Thursday’s shooting occurred, is among the most underserved areas in terms of patrol density.
The two suspects now face prosecution under Baja California state law. If the FGE files formal charges, a judge will decide on pretrial detention at an initial hearing, typically held within 72 hours of arrest. The investigation remains open, and authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for the killings. This story was first reported by the Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana de Tijuana.