A lone man with a handgun held dozens of people hostage atop the Pyramid of the Moon in the bustling Teotihuacan archaeological zone. Among the terrified crowd were many foreign tourists. Videos circulating online show them lying prone or hiding behind stones protruding from the pyramid itself. The killer—who murdered a Canadian national—strolled leisurely at the height he had chosen as his stage. He seemed aware that he was being watched, filmed, and feared. Everyone was petrified as the attacker, identified as 27-year-old Julio César N, walked to his luggage, bent down, likely retrieved cartridges, and then, gun in hand, returned to where his victims lay prostrate.
The videos, recorded from dozens of meters away by visitors at the foot of the pyramid, don’t allow for the observation of small details, but what matters now is the overall picture, his deplorable act: the man swings his arm with the weapon, points it at the sky, then at the people lying face down, and fires once, twice, three times. The shots are spaced by a brief, macabre pause, as if each detonation and its interval were a coded message.
The attacker wounded seven people with the weapon. Six others suffered bodily injuries and fractures in the heat of the fray. According to an initial report issued by a state police commander, the shooter committed suicide. However, other videos show members of the National Guard hunting him down. Thunderous detonations are heard, suggesting the caliber of the rifles, and then silence. The authorities have not yet clarified his death. Nor are other crucial points for understanding the crime of a lone wolf against a random crowd with a firearm. It’s impossible not to think of the mass shootings that are frequent in the United States, to which Mexicans are not accustomed.
Very little is known about the killer’s identity, even less about his motives, beyond hatred. It has only just been revealed that he lived in the northern part of Mexico City, in the Gustavo A. Madero borough, according to the identification that investigators found among his belongings next to his body.
The newspaper Milenio has reported that the young man was a Hitler supporter and even posted photos of himself giving the Nazi salute. Despite the official silence surrounding the case, the profile of the victims—all foreigners—and certain signs surrounding the attack offer clues. Some media outlets have drawn attention to the fact that the crime occurred on Hitler’s birthday. Another coincidence is the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, USA, which occurred on April 20, 1999. Two students murdered 12 classmates and a teacher with assault rifles, and wounded 24 others. They then committed suicide. This event has become one of the most striking symbols of the gun violence epidemic and its victims in the US.
There has also been reference to the T-shirt worn by the attacker, which bore the slogan “Disconnect & Self-Destruct.” The news outlet Milenio has pointed out that this slogan is commonly used in the True Crime Community (TCC), to which the Columbine shooters were affiliated. While the Teotihuacan attacker’s connection to the TCC is not entirely clear, various organizations have warned of the proliferation of this diffuse organization’s ideas, especially regarding “performative violence” or “nihilistic violence.” This hallmark is repeated in seemingly unrelated crimes in different countries, where the murder weapon might be a gun or a knife, where the victims are random people in a crowd, and where the common denominator is that the attacker is always a man.
