American TikToker Gabriel Salazar, better known as gabenotbabe, shot to fame with his entertaining lip-syncs and comedy sketches. He also gained a huge fan base on other social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. However, his career was cut short by his untimely death in a tragic car accident in September 2021. He was apparently driving when he was chased by the police near the US–Mexico border. He and his three passengers died when the car crashed and caught fire.
Early Life
Gabriel Salazar, better known on social media as gabenotbabe, was from San Antonio. He had Hispanic roots. Not much is known about his early life. However, reports state he attended Wagner High School.
Social Media Career
Gabriel shot to fame on social media with his TikTok account, gabenotbabe. Though he had joined TikTok in 2019, one of his earliest posts on the platform was dated February 2020. In March that year, he began posting on Instagram as gabenotbabee.
Over the years, he gained immense fame with comedy skits, sketches, and lip-syncs. He lip-synced to songs of many popular artists, such as Me Too by Kevin Gates. His video POV i drop u off after our first time hanging out received more than 100,000 views. By mid-2021, he had amassed almost 1.5 million fans and over 66 million likes on the platform.
He had also garnered 790,000 followers on Instagram. He joined YouTube on April 16, 2017, and soon gained over 86,000 subscribers on the platform. He also had over 7,000 followers on Twitter.
Family Life
Gabriel grew up with his sister, Danna, and a brother. He was known for his signature messy hairdo, his septum piercing, and his plump lips.
Death
On September 26, 2021, Gabriel, aged 19, died due to injuries from a deadly car crash in Zavala County, Texas. He was apparently driving a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro with three other male passengers. When the accident took place, he was being chased by Crystal City Police. After an attempted traffic stop, his car sped along a highway past 1am.
As the car was being chased, a Zavala County Sheriff’s Office deputy assisted the pursuit by deploying a tire deflation device. The plan failed, and Gabriel’s car ran into a ditch, crashing against the trees, rolled over several times, and was engulfed in flames.
Gabriel and his co-passengers, Jose Luis Jimenez-Mora, Jose Molina-Lara, and Sergio Espinoza-Flores, were all pronounced dead. Of them, Jose Luis had apparently been arrested for crossing the US–Mexico border in October 2018 in Hidalgo County.
Gabriel’s last Instagram post, posted a day before his death, showed him standing near his white Camaro. His friend Chris Vasquez launched a GoFundMe page to fund his funeral. Social media saw a deluge of tributes from his friends, fans, and cohorts, including his sister, Danna, and his fellow influencers FaZe Rug and Desiree Montoya.
