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Mexico pyramid shooting was planned attack, officials say / Photo: Daniel SLIM - AFP
Mexico pyramid shooting was planned attack, officials say
Mexican authorities said Tuesday that the man who killed a Canadian woman and wounded 13 others the day before at the famed Teotihuacan pyramids had planned the attack in advance.
As authorities grappled with the security breach that occurred midday Monday, just weeks before Mexico hosts several World Cup football matches, President Claudia Sheinbaum called for tighter gun controls at tourist areas.
The attack, carried out by a Mexican man who then took his life, "was not spontaneous," Mexico State Prosecutor Jose Luis Cervantes told reporters at a press conference alongside Sheinbaum.
The suspect, identified as 27-year-old Mexico City resident Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, "made preliminary visits on multiple occasions to the archaeological site, stayed in hotels near the site ahead of time, and from there planned his violent acts," Cervantes said.
The famed pyramids are located less than an hour's drive from Mexico City.
The gunman died by suicide after military personnel approached and began to engage him, authorities said.
At least 13 people were injured, including some who suffered gunshot wounds.
Among the wounded, who were taken to different hospitals, were a six-year-old boy and a woman from Colombia, another Canadian woman, a Brazilian man and two Americans.
According to the prosecutor, a backpack was found at the scene containing the gun the assailant used, a knife and 52 rounds of ammunition.
It also contained literature and images linked "to violent events that are known to have occurred in the United States in April 1999," Cervantes said, in an apparent reference to the infamous Columbine High School shooting.
Two students, aged 17 and 18, attacked the Colorado high school on April 20, 1999, killing 12 classmates and a teacher in a matter of minutes, before taking their own lives.
Several other mass shooters in the United States have subsequently cited the high-profile tragedy as inspiration for their attacks.
Sheinbaum stated that the assailant had "psychological problems" and "was influenced by events that had occurred abroad."
The president said it was the first time something like this had happened at an archaeological site in Mexico and called for increased security at tourist sites around the country.
"We need to have better security to make sure someone can't enter an archaeological site, a tourist site, with a firearm," she said.
Mexico City hosts the World Cup's opening match on June 11.
H.Zampino--INP
