The Narco Blog

‘Doña Chona,’ in Her 80s, Killed as Gunmen Rake a Culiacán Street With Rifle Fire — Sinaloa’s Cartel War Reaches 3,948 Violent Deaths

By The Narco Blog · October 4, 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026

Gunmen with assault rifles shot up a house on Girasol Street in the 10 de Mayo neighborhood of Culiacán, Sinaloa, shortly before 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, and killed a woman in her 80s whom neighbors knew as “doña Chona,” local outlets reported. Noroeste counted her as one of five homicides in Sinaloa that day. It said the war between the Guzmán and Zambada factions of the Sinaloa Cartel has now left 3,948 violent deaths and 4,433 people deprived of their liberty since Sept. 9, 2024.

Inside the house, or on the porch across the street?

Accounts of who she was and where she was hit differ. Noroeste identified her as Concepción, 80. Línea Directa named her as Ascensión N., 86, and said she was on the front porch of her own home when a stray bullet hit her. In that account, the gunmen’s target was the two-story house across the street. Azteca Sinaloa also named her Ascensión but gave her age as 85, and said she was inside the house that was attacked. Extraoficial and Meganoticias said soldiers found her dead inside the targeted home and that relatives inside escaped.

Reports agree that soldiers found dozens of rifle casings and bullet-pocked facades, and that a second house was hit. Sinaloa’s state prosecutor (FGE) is investigating. No arrests or motive have been reported.

An ambulance with flashing lights and a soldier behind yellow caution tape on a residential street in Culiacán at night. — A Red Cross ambulance and a soldier at the cordon on the night of the attack in the 10 de Mayo neighborhood. Photo: Luz Noticias.

NoroesteTV’s report from the scene:

The rest of Saturday in Sinaloa

According to Noroeste’s daily tally, a man was found shot dead in Culiacán’s Valle del Agua area. Gunmen on a motorcycle killed the 43-year-old director of a spiritual retreat center on a dirt road. In Mazatlán, a man was shot dead while sitting on the sidewalk outside his home in the Díaz Ordaz neighborhood, and two municipal police officers were shot near the airport.

Also in Mazatlán, soldiers chased two men on a motorcycle who were suspected of shooting at a house in Urías. A Humvee struck their motorcycle, Noroeste said, and one of them, Brayan, 20, later died in the hospital of gunshot wounds suffered during the chase. In Los Mochis, Alexis Orlando, 35, died of a gunshot wound to the chest from Thursday, and police arrested a suspect after a pursuit.

She was the first woman killed in Sinaloa in October, Noroeste said.

Sources

Reported Oct. 4, 2026, from the outlets above. Officials have not formally identified the victim, named a target or motive, or linked the attack to a specific group.