A Canadian tourist was killed after a gunman opened fire on visitors at Mexico’s Teotihuacan ruins. Now, a video showing the chilling sequence of events that led up to the attack has surfaced.
The video, accessed by The New York Post, shows the suspect moving casually through the ancient complex with a backpack believed to be loaded with ammunition. Moments later, he is seen setting up his weapon before opening fire that triggers panic among tourists at the site.
“Get down! Get down!” a terrified onlooker is heard shouting as gunshots echo across the ruins.
The attacker has been identified as 27-year-old Mexican national Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez who was reportedly obsessed with Adolf Hitler. Wearing a mask, he is seen walking into the frame before positioning himself on the Pyramid of the Moon, where he chose to carry out the shooting.
What followed was a scene of chaos with visitors ducking and fleeing as bullets were sprayed into the crowd.
“All we could hear is shot after shot…and we just didn’t know where these shots were going to. We didn’t know if they were coming towards us. That’s why we just kept running and running,” Yazmin Salcedo of Texas told NBC Dallas-Forth Worth.
Salcedo’s husband, Joel Torres, had been filming the pyramid on a 360-degree camera when the attack unfolded. The family was on vacation with their son and daughter-in-law when Torres unknowingly captured the incident on camera.
“He walked in front of us, sat himself down…It wasn’t even a minute. It was less than that when the first shot happened. Thank God…there were not more people killed because he really had the opportunity to shoot everybody that he could out there,” Torres said.
The gunman made his way partway up the nearly 2,000-year-old Pyramid of the Moon before opening fire with a 1968 Smith & Wesson revolver, The New York Post citing authorities reported. He later shot himself at the site.
One Canadian woman was killed in the attack, while multiple others, including six Americans, three Colombians, one Russian, two Brazilians and another Canadian, were injured and taken to hospital.
Investigators believe the shooting may have been premeditated. According to reports, Jasso had been planning the attack for nearly two months and had studied images of the site kept in his hotel room. He had also sent messages earlier this year inquiring about accommodation between April 8 and 20 as well as the distance to what he referred to as the “Holy City.”
Authorities said he was found with 58 rounds of unused ammunition.