Mexican shooter who killed Canadian tourist and injured 13 others was a ‘copycat’ of US school shooters: Officials

The gunman who killed a Canadian tourist and injured 13 more on Monday at the Pyramid of the Moon, a major tourist attraction in Mexico, was an admirer of the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine massacre in the US, Mexican officials said.

Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, the 27-year-old shooter who targeted tourists in Teotihuacan, an archaeological site in the state of Mexico, took his own life after being confronted by National Guard forces.

Mexican authorities confirmed the identity of the assailant and reported that he was carrying knives, ammunition, and literature related to the Columbine massacre—a 1999 school shooting in Colorado in which two high school students killed 12 others before taking their own lives.

The attacker was armed with a handgun dating back to 1968, .38-caliber ammunition, and a bladed weapon.

At a Tuesday press conference, Prosecutor Jose Luis Cervantes Martinez said the killer appeared to have acted under the influence of the Columbine massacre.

“Preliminary findings indicate a psychopathic profile characterized by a tendency to replicate events that occurred in other places, at other times, and carried out by other individuals; this tendency is known as a ‘copycat’,” he explained.

Audio and video content on social media showed Jasso Ramirez threatening foreign tourists, saying he would “sacrifice” them while shouting xenophobic remarks.

Upon arrival, the National Guard confronted Ramirez with gunfire, wounding him in the leg. According to Mexican authorities, he then took his own life by shooting himself in the head with his revolver.

According to Mexico’s security chief, Omar Garcia Harfuch, troops will be deployed to secure tourist sites across the country, and surveillance and intelligence efforts will be intensified.

“Physical and cyber patrols will also be expanded, led by the National Guard and the National Intelligence Center, to identify and prevent any threats,” Harfuch wrote on US social media platform X.

The shooting targeting foreign tourists comes just days before Mexico is set to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside the United States and Canada. At a press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum called for calm and assured that security protocols are in place to safeguard visitors.

“It is safe to be in Mexico—so safe that 16 million people arrived between January and February. Sixteen million foreign visitors,” she said.