Shooting outside a Tulum nightclub kills one man and leaves a waitress hospitalized

Gunmen opened fire on two employees standing outside a Tulum nightclub in the early hours of Sunday, killing one man and wounding a waitress who ran for cover when the shooting started.

According to first reports, several armed men reached the entrance of the business on Beta Sur, fired at the two workers posted at the door, and then left the scene. The man who died was hit in the head and was pronounced dead where he fell. Preliminary reports identified him as the venue's head of security. No authority has confirmed that.

Both people shot were staff. Neither was a customer. The attack landed in the middle of the municipal seat, on the block of bars and clubs that fills with residents and visitors every weekend night, and nobody has been detained.

Gunfire at a Beta Sur entrance

The shooting happened on Beta Sur, between Andrómeda and Avenida Tulum. Multiple calls to the 911 emergency line brought municipal police, who cordoned off the block and preserved the scene.

Investigative police and forensic experts from the State Attorney General's Office arrived minutes later. They secured the scene, carried out the initial proceedings, and removed the body for transfer to the state forensic service.

A waitress made it to the hospital on her own

The second victim, a waitress at the club, was struck by a round as she tried to get clear of the gunfire. Witnesses said she left the site under her own power and reached Hospital Tulum, where she was given initial treatment.

Her injuries were serious enough that she was then transferred to the Hospital General in Playa del Carmen. As of Monday, no authority has released an update on her condition.

That transfer follows a pattern the town knows well. Serious gunshot cases in Tulum are routinely moved up the coast for continued treatment. When Tulum's own security secretary, José Roberto Rodríguez Bautista, was shot in March 2025, he was taken to Playa del Carmen, where he died the following morning.

The Tulum nightclub shooting file remains open

The State Attorney General's Office has an open homicide file and, according to its account of the case, is working to identify those responsible and establish the circumstances of the attack. No arrests have been reported, and no motive has been stated publicly.

Armed attacks have hit this block before

The stretch has a record. In March 2021, a predawn shooting on Beta Sur between Andrómeda and avenida Tulum left one man dead and four people wounded, among them a foreign visitor, according to reporting at the time. The corner sits steps from the avenue that carries most of the town's night traffic, which is what makes it commercially valuable and what makes an attack there visible to hundreds of people.

Quintana Roo authorities have described the violence in Tulum in recent years as a dispute between criminal groups operating in the municipality. Whether that framing applies to Sunday's attack is not something any official has said.

The State Attorney General's Office has not scheduled a briefing on the case. Until it does, the two things still missing are the ones missing since Sunday morning. Who fired, and whether the waitress will recover.

Has the violence around Tulum's downtown bar strip changed how you move through the center at night? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.