Julio César Jasso Ramírez: The Teotihuacán shooter who celebrated the Columbine massacre and the fascist far right

A lone man with a handgun is holding dozens of people hostage atop the Pyramid of the Moon in the bustling archaeological zone of Teotihuacán (State of Mexico). Among the terrified crowd are many foreign tourists. Videos circulating online show them lying prone or hiding behind stones protruding from the pyramid itself. The gunman strolls leisurely at the height he has chosen as his stage. He seems aware that he is being watched, filmed, and feared. Everyone is frozen in place as the attacker, identified as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, walks to his backpack, crouches down, likely removes cartridges, and then, gun in hand, returns to where his intended victims are seeking cover.

The videos, recorded from dozens of meters away by visitors below the pyramid, don’t reveal the minor details, but what matters now is the overall picture, the 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 punctuated by a brief, macabre pause, as if each discharge and its interval were a coded message.

The attacker wounded seven other people with the weapon. Six more suffered bodily injuries and fractures in the heat of the clash. According to an initial report issued by a police commander in the State of Mexico, the shooter took his own life. However, other videos show members of the National Guard hunting him down. Deafening gunshots can be heard, suggesting the caliber of the rifles, followed by silence. Authorities have not clarified this point, nor have they addressed other crucial aspects of understanding a lone wolf attacking a crowd, randomly, with a firearm. It is impossible not to think of the mass shootings that are frequent in the United States, something to which Mexicans are not accustomed.

Very little is known about the killer, and even less about his motives, beyond hatred. It has only been revealed that he lived in the Gustavo A. Madero borough in northern Mexico City, according to identification found among his belongings near his body by investigators.

The newspaper Milenio has reported that the young man was an admirer of Hitler and even published photos of himself giving the Nazi salute. Despite the official silence surrounding the case, the profile of the victims — all foreigners — and certain details 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, on April 20, 1999. Two students used assault rifles to kill 12 classmates and a teacher, and wounded 24 others. They then turned the weapons on themselves. The tragedy has become one of the most striking images of the gun violence epidemic and its devastating consequences in the United States.

Reference has also been made to the attacker’s t-shirt, which bore the slogan “Disconnect & Self-Destruct.” Milenio pointed out that this slogan is commonly used within the True Crime Community (TCC), to which the Columbine shooters were linked. While the Teotihuacán attacker’s connection to the TCC is not entirely clear, various organizations have warned of the proliferation of ideas associated with this diffuse group, particularly regarding “performative violence” or “nihilistic violence.” This characteristic is repeated in seemingly unrelated crimes in different countries, where the murder weapon can 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 male.

This unusual crime echoes the murder, just three weeks ago, of two high school teachers by a 15-year-old boy in Michoacán. This attacker used an AK-47 assault rifle. Moments before the attack, the boy recorded himself posing with the weapon in front of his mirror. In other separate posts on his social media, he shared messages that identify him with the “incel” community, a movement of men who profess hatred toward women and champion a wounded and resentful masculinity.

In that respect, the Michoacán murder is reminiscent of a similar crime that occurred at a high school affiliated with the prestigious National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in September 2025. A student was stabbed to death by a 19-year-old man who entered the school to attack him. The assailant published several posts on social media describing himself as a young man trapped in loneliness and resentment. In “incel” forums (short for “involuntary celibates,” men who consider themselves rejected by women), he wrote messages that revealed his willingness to kill.

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