A Mexican social media influencer with roughly 600,000 followers on TikTok has been shot and killed while streaming live on the platform, the latest in a series of violent deaths targeting content creators in Mexico's deadliest cartel conflict zones. César Gastélum, 25, was killed on Tuesday evening outside a fast-food restaurant in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state in northwestern Mexico, a region that has been engulfed in gang warfare for nearly a year. Two men on a motorcycle pulled up beside Gastélum and his companions, and one of the riders shot him at point-blank range before both fled the scene. Thousands of followers were watching the livestream at the moment of the attack.

Gastélum and his friends were wearing the bright orange jackets typically associated with food delivery drivers, causing police initially to mistake him for a courier. Authorities confirmed his death and said a major security operation, including analysis of surveillance footage, was under way to identify and apprehend those responsible. Mexico's security cabinet noted that some of Gastélum's previous posts had