Tijuana recorded 17 homicides between Friday and Sunday, making it one of the deadliest weekends in the city so far this year. The violence stretched across multiple colonias and included shootings, stabbings, and at least one case involving a victim found wrapped and abandoned. Local authorities are investigating each case separately, but no arrests have been announced.
Killings Spread Across at Least 10 Colonias From Friday to Sunday
The weekend’s toll began Friday with five homicides. A man was shot to death inside a home on Calle Emiliano Zapata in Colonia Libertad. In the Zona Norte, near Calle Coahuila and Avenida Constitución, another man was gunned down. A third victim was found dead on the street in Colonia Sánchez Taboada. Two more men were killed that night: one near Colonia El Rubí and another in the Camino Verde area.
Saturday brought six more killings. A man was found shot to death in a vehicle in Colonia Los Álamos. In Colonia Mariano Matamoros, a shooting left one dead. Near the Otay border zone, a body was discovered wrapped and left at a roadside. Three other homicides were recorded in the colonias of La Presa, El Florido, and Playas de Tijuana. The Playas killing is notable because that coastal neighborhood is home to a significant number of American and Canadian residents.
Sunday added six more deaths. Two men were shot in separate incidents in Colonia Libertad, the same neighborhood where Friday’s first killing occurred. Another victim was found dead in a car in the Valle de las Palmas area, east of the city center. The remaining three killings took place in Colonia Camino Verde, Colonia Francisco Villa, and near the La Mesa commercial district.
In several cases, witnesses reported hearing gunfire but seeing no suspects. The FGE (Baja California’s state attorney general’s office) confirmed it had opened investigations into all 17 deaths. No motive has been publicly established for any of the killings, though security analysts and local reporters have noted that many bore hallmarks of organized crime activity: targeted shootings, victims left in vehicles, and bodies abandoned in public spaces as apparent messages.
Tijuana’s 2025 Homicide Count Already Exceeds 700
This weekend’s violence fits a grim pattern. Tijuana has been one of Mexico’s deadliest cities for nearly a decade. In 2024, the city recorded more than 1,500 homicides, according to data compiled by the Baja California state security office. That figure placed Tijuana among the top three most violent municipalities in the country alongside Ciudad Juárez and Guanajuato’s León.
Through late May 2025, local media tallies suggest the city has already surpassed 700 homicides for the year. That pace, roughly 4.5 killings per day, is consistent with 2024’s rate. The Sánchez Taboada, Mariano Matamoros, and Camino Verde neighborhoods appear repeatedly in these tallies. All three are areas where drug retail operations and territorial disputes between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) have driven sustained violence since at least 2018.
The city’s police force has undergone several reorganizations. In early 2025, Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Avila announced the deployment of additional state police units to Tijuana’s eastern colonias, where many of the killings concentrate. The Mexican military’s National Guard also maintains checkpoints along the Tijuana-Tecate highway corridor. Yet the weekend’s numbers show those measures have not reduced the killing rate in a measurable way.
Playas de Tijuana and Zona Norte Among Affected Areas
Two of the neighborhoods where killings occurred this weekend are frequented by or home to English-speaking residents. Playas de Tijuana, the beachfront district near the border fence, has a well-established community of American renters and property owners. Saturday’s homicide there took place near the commercial strip along Calle del Pacífico. Zona Norte, the blocks immediately south of the San Ysidro pedestrian crossing, sees heavy foot traffic from cross-border visitors daily.
Colonia Libertad, where three of the weekend’s 17 killings occurred, sits on the hillside directly overlooking the border crossing infrastructure. Visitors and residents who use the El Chaparral or PedWest crossings drive through or past this neighborhood regularly. Local security consultants have long advised cross-border commuters to avoid stops in Libertad and Sánchez Taboada, especially after dark.
The FGE has not announced any suspects or arrests connected to the 17 homicides. Baja California’s security secretary is expected to provide updated figures at a Monday press conference. Reporting for this article drew on accounts published by Zeta Tijuana and El Sol de Tijuana.