A lone man with a handgun is holding dozens of people hostage atop the Pyramid of the Moon in the bustling archaeological zone of Teotihuacan (State of Mexico). Among the terrified crowd are many foreign tourists. Videos circulating online show them lying prone or hiding behind the stones protruding from the pyramid itself. The gunman—who killed a Canadian national—strolls leisurely at this height he has chosen as his stage. He seems aware that he is being watched, filmed, and feared. Everyone is frozen in fear as the attacker, identified as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, walks to his luggage, crouches down, likely retrieves cartridges, and then, gun in hand—a .38 caliber revolver—returns to where his victims are lying prone.
The videos, recorded from dozens of meters away by visitors at the foot of the pyramid, don’t show the small details, but they reveal the big picture, the deplorable act of the killer before the world: Jasso Ramírez, wearing military attire, 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.
In addition to killing the Canadian woman, the attacker wounded seven people with the weapon. Six others suffered bodily injuries and fractures in the heat of the shootout. According to the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico, Jasso Ramírez committed suicide with his own revolver after being shot in the leg by members of the National Guard who arrived at the scene to address the crisis. Authorities waited until the day after the massacre, which occurred on Monday, to release details that shed light on the crime of a lone wolf who chose a random crowd. It is impossible not to think of the mass shootings that are frequent in the United States, to which Mexicans are not accustomed.
It is now known that the killer was originally from the municipality of Tlapa (Guerrero State)—which has a large indigenous population—and lived in Mexico City, according to identification found among his belongings. In a backpack, he carried dozens of cartridges, a knife, and pamphlets related to the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, USA, which occurred on April 20, 1999, and which he commemorated as a significant event. The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico believes that Jasso Ramírez had a “psychopathic profile” that made him a copycat, an imitator who replicates iconic crimes. His inspiration was the two Columbine students who 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 epidemic and its victims in the United States. The revolver Jasso Ramírez used, a Smith & Wesson, was itself a relic from the 1960s, manufactured in the United States.
The profile of the victims—all foreigners—and the symbols chosen by the attacker provide further clues about a hate crime, however much the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico insists that Jasso Ramírez simply had “psychopathy, a disorder, an illness.” “He was disconnected from the real world,” said prosecutor José Luis Cervantes, adding, “He left some notes saying he had some inspiration beyond Earth.” The newspaper Milenio found that Jasso Ramírez was a Hitler follower and even published photographs of him giving the Nazi salute, which links him to the fascist far right. In fact, another anniversary that fell on the same day as Jasso Ramírez’s murder was the birth of the German fascist leader.
Source: elpais
