A gunman who unleashed terror on tourists at the renowned Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico has been identified as a Hitler enthusiast, known for posing with Nazi salutes. Authorities also discovered an AI-generated image of him alongside the Columbine High School shooters, according to local officials.
Julio César Jasso, 27, fatally shot a Canadian tourist and wounded several others before taking his own life at the archaeological site near Mexico City on Monday. The attack coincided with the anniversaries of both Adolf Hitler’s birth and the Columbine High School massacre.
At the crime scene, Jasso left behind a digitally altered image of himself with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of the April 20, 1999, Columbine shooting that resulted in 14 deaths, including the shooters. This detail was reported by federal prosecutors to the Mexican news outlet Telediario.
Jasso reportedly belonged to an online subculture known as the True Crime Community, which idolizes school shootings, with a particular fixation on the Columbine tragedy, the outlet revealed.
In the digitally manipulated photo, Jasso wore a shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Disconnect & Self-Destruct,” a slogan linked to this community.
Police recovered a brown revolver, a gray knife, and a bag containing various ammunition rounds near Jasso’s body. He had turned the gun on himself during an exchange of fire with law enforcement officers.
Authorities additionally said they found images of Jasso performing the Nazi salute, which he’s been known to do since he was a teenager, Telediario reported.
Jasso started shooting tourists from halfway up the Temple of the Moon — a nearly 2,000-year-old structure and popular tourist attraction that was once used for ritual human sacrifice — just after 11:30 a.m.
Videos posted on social media show Jasso, wearing a black mask and a handgun, pacing around the platform as trapped hostages lay face-first on the ground.
He appears to have been shot during a gunfire exchange with National Police before he took his own life, according to Milenio.
Six Americans, three Colombians, one Russian, two Brazilians and one Canadian were taken to the hospital. The youngest person injured was 6, and the oldest was 61, authorities said.
Seven of those hurt were shot, officials said. It’s not clear how others were injured, but tourists could be seen running for their lives in clips posted online once gunfire erupted.
Eight victims were still recovering in the hospital Monday night.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X that she has been in touch with the Canadian embassy and that she has instructed Mexico’s Security Cabinet to “thoroughly investigate” the incident.
