A Tijuana municipal police officer was shot and killed Tuesday morning while driving his personal vehicle near Colonia Libertad, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods close to the U.S. border. The officer, who was off duty at the time, was ambushed by armed suspects who opened fire on his car before fleeing the scene.
The attack occurred around 8:00 a.m. on Calle Internacional, a road that runs parallel to the border fence in the eastern part of the city. Witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots. Emergency services arrived to find the officer with several bullet wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Targeted Attacks on Tijuana Police Have Persisted for Years
The killing fits a pattern that has plagued Tijuana’s municipal police force for over a decade. Officers are frequently targeted while off duty, traveling to or from shifts, or spending time at home. Criminal organizations operating in the city have long used these attacks as tools of intimidation, retaliation, or coercion against officers who refuse to cooperate.
Tijuana recorded at least 14 police officer killings in 2024, and the toll in previous years has been even higher. In 2018 and 2019, the city saw some of its worst stretches of violence against law enforcement. During those years, officers were killed at a rate of roughly one per week during the most intense periods. Many of the attacks followed the same template: gunmen in a vehicle approaching an officer who was alone and out of uniform.
Colonia Libertad, where Tuesday’s attack took place, sits just south of the border crossing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The neighborhood has a long history tied to cross-border migration and commerce, but it also falls within contested territory where rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) have competed for control of drug trafficking routes into California.
The FGE (Fiscalía General del Estado), Baja California’s state attorney general’s office, opened a homicide investigation. So far, no arrests have been announced. Investigations into attacks on police officers in Tijuana have historically produced low clearance rates. A 2023 report by the civic organization Semáforo Delictivo found that fewer than 10% of homicide cases in Baja California resulted in a criminal sentence.
Tijuana’s Police Force Struggles With Staffing and Retention
The persistent danger facing officers compounds an already severe staffing shortage within Tijuana’s municipal police department. The city has approximately 2,500 active officers serving a metropolitan area of more than two million people. By comparison, San Diego, with a population of roughly 1.4 million just across the border, employs about 2,000 sworn officers in a far lower-risk environment.
Tijuana’s ratio of officers to residents ranks among the worst in Mexico for cities of its size. Recruitment campaigns have struggled to attract candidates, in part because of the physical risks and in part because of relatively low pay. A Tijuana municipal police officer earns roughly 15,000 to 18,000 pesos per month (about $830 to $1,000 USD), though bonuses and hazard supplements can push that figure somewhat higher.
The staffing gap affects response times and patrol coverage across the city, including areas popular with cross-border visitors and the growing number of Americans who live in Tijuana’s Playas de Tijuana and Zona Río neighborhoods. When officers are killed, the effect ripples through an already stretched force. Colleagues sometimes refuse to patrol certain zones without backup, and some resign outright.
Former Tijuana police chief Jorge Alberto Ayón Monsalvo, who served under the previous municipal administration, publicly acknowledged in 2023 that targeted killings were the single greatest obstacle to retaining officers. The current administration of Mayor Ismael Burgueño Ruiz, who took office in October 2024, has pledged to improve equipment and working conditions, but concrete results have been slow to materialize.
Tuesday’s killing also comes during a broader wave of homicides in Tijuana. The city recorded over 1,500 homicides in 2024, making it one of the deadliest cities in the Western Hemisphere by raw numbers, though the per capita rate has declined slightly from its 2018 peak of more than 2,500 killings.
The FGE has asked witnesses in the area of Calle Internacional and Colonia Libertad to contact investigators through the anonymous tip line 089. The next scheduled public security report from the Tijuana municipal government is expected in the first week of July. This story was first reported by Zeta Tijuana.