Mexico to Boost Security at Tourist Sites After Teotihuacan Attack Ahead of World Cup

National Guard members stand on a vehicle with the Pyramid of the Moon behind them | Reuters

Top Mexican officials pledged World Cup safety after a gunman killed a Canadian tourist at Teotihuacan’s pyramids. The 27-year-old, carrying Columbine references, opened fire before taking his own life.

A shooting at Mexico’s Teotihuacan pyramids left one Canadian tourist dead and 13 injured...

Top Mexican officials pledge World Cup safety after tourist killed at ancient pyramids

Top Mexican officials pledged Tuesday to secure World Cup matches after a shooting at the famed Teotihuacan pyramids killed a Canadian tourist. Officials said the gunman appeared to have been influenced by violent incidents abroad.

A 27-year-old man with a gun and a knife in his backpack sparked panic when he opened fire from atop a pyramid at the sprawling site, one of Mexico’s top tourist attractions, officials said. He then died by suicide.

Mexican officials said he acted alone and fired 14 shots at victims and National Guard military police.

Evidence points to premeditated attack inspired by past mass violence

Documents found with the gunman referenced the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Colorado and suggested psychopathic behavior, said Luis Cervantes, attorney general of the State of Mexico, where Teotihuacan is located.

“Among his belongings, authorities also found literature, images and documents allegedly linked to acts of violence that may have occurred in the United States in April 1999,” he said at the president’s daily press conference. Cervantes added that the shooting appeared planned and that the gunman had visited Teotihuacan, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Mexico City, many times before. Along with a gun, the shooter carried a plastic bag with 52 live .38 Special-caliber rounds. “This act was not spontaneous,” Cervantes said.

 

A tourist who witnessed the shooting said that visitors heard the attacker mention Columbine, one of the most notorious mass shootings in U.S. history and one cited as inspiration for other attackers.

  

Another witness to the shooting said he feared the death toll would be higher.

“He was firing and firing and firing and the bullets were making different sounds,” Barak Hardley, a tourist from Los Angeles, said.

“I don't know why he stopped with one person. Thank God he did.”

Officials detail injuries and pledge stronger security at tourist sites

Mexico’s security cabinet said Monday that 13 people were injured, including a 13-year-old and a 6-year-old. The victims were from Canada, the U.S., Colombia, Russia, Brazil and the Netherlands. Seven suffered gunshot wounds, Cervantes added Tuesday.

“The state's response was immediate and forceful,” Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told reporters, adding that law enforcement will tighten security at archaeological sites and other top tourist sites.

Teotihuacan, a site of towering pyramids and temples first occupied from 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. and later controlled by the Aztecs, drew 1.8 million visitors last year, according to Mexico’s tourism ministry.

 

The major tourist site will reopen Wednesday with stronger security, President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

 

She restated Mexico’s safety guarantees for the world’s largest soccer event, which opens June 11 in Mexico City before games in other major Mexican cities. She said Monday she met with FIFA staff, who organize the World Cup, to discuss logistics.

“We all know we had never seen anything like this in Mexico,” she said. “From what prosecutors have indicated, this person showed signs of psychological problems and was influenced by incidents that had occurred abroad.”

Sheinbaum had already faced questions about World Cup safety after the capture and death of drug kingpin El Mencho in March led to violent incidents across several regions of the country.