A single man with a handgun holds dozens of people captive at the top of the Pyramid of the Moon, in the crowded archaeological zone of Teotihuacán. Among the terrified people are many foreign tourists. In the videos that have surfaced on social media, they are seen lying face down or hidden behind the stones protruding from the pyramid itself. The killer ―who killed a Canadian national― strolls leisurely at that height he has chosen as his stage. He seems aware that he is being watched, recorded, feared. Everyone is petrified while the attacker, identified as Julio César N, 27, walks towards his luggage, bends down, probably extracts cartridges, and then, gun in hand, returns to where his future victims are prostrate.
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The videos, recorded dozens of meters away by visitors at the foot of the pyramid, do not allow for observation of small details, but what matters now is the broad image, his deplorable feat: the subject swings his arm with the weapon, points to the sky, then towards the people lying face down, and fires one, two, three times. Thus, the shots spaced by a brief macabre pause, as if each detonation and its interval were a coded message.
The attacker wounded seven people with the weapon. Another six suffered bodily injuries and fractures in the heat of the skirmish. According to an initial report issued by a state police commander, the shooter committed suicide. However, other videos show elements of the National Guard hunting him down. Thunderous detonations are heard, suggesting the caliber of the rifles, and then silence. Authorities have not clarified his death. Nor have they clarified other crucial points for understanding the crime of a lone wolf against a crowd, randomly, with a firearm. It is inevitable to think of the massacres that are frequent in the United States, to which Mexicans are not accustomed.
Very little is known about the identity of the killer, even less about his motives, beyond hatred. It barely transpired that he lived north of Mexico City, in the Gustavo A. Madero borough, according to the identification that ministerial agents found among his belongings next to his body.
The newspaper Milenio has reported that the young man was a follower of Hitler and had published photographs of himself giving the Nazi salute. Faced with the official secrecy, the profile of the victims ―all foreigners― and certain signs surrounding the attack provide clues. Some media have drawn attention to the fact that the crime occurred on Hitler’s birthday. Another coincidence is the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, United States, which occurred on April 20, 1999. Two students murdered 12 classmates and a teacher with assault rifles, and wounded 24 more people. Afterwards, they committed suicide. That event has become one of the biggest symbols of the epidemic of guns and their victims in the US.
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Reference has also been made to the T-shirt worn by the attacker, which had the legend “Disconnect & Self-Destruct” printed on it. Milenio has pointed out that the legend is commonly used in the True Crime Community (TCC), in which the Columbine killers were involved since then. While the Teotihuacán attacker’s relationship with the TCC is not exactly clear, it is true that various organizations have warned of the proliferation of the ideas of this diffuse organization, especially regarding “performative violence” or “nihilistic violence.” This is a hallmark that is repeated in apparently unconnected crimes, in different countries, where the murder weapon can be a pistol or a dagger, where the victims are random people in a crowd, and where the common denominator is that the attacker is always a man.
This unusual crime occurs as an echo of the murder, just three weeks ago, of two high school teachers by a 15-year-old teenager in Michoacán. This attacker used an AK-47 assault rifle. Moments before the homicide, the boy recorded himself in front of his mirror posing with the weapon. In other loose stories uploaded to his social networks, he published messages that identify him with the machosfera of the incel community, a movement of men who profess hatred towards women and claim a wounded and resentful masculinity.
In that aspect, the Michoacán murder evokes another similar crime, which occurred inside a high school of the prestigious UNAM, in September 2025. A student was murdered with a knife by a 19-year-old man who entered the campus to attack him. The perpetrator made several posts on social media where he described himself as a young man trapped in loneliness and resentment. In incel forums (a term for “involuntary celibates,” men who consider themselves despised by women), he wrote messages that revealed his willingness to kill.
Last week, Mexico celebrated the historic decline in the number of homicides in a decade ―to an average of 50 per month―, after the long period of violence framed in the war against drug trafficking. The Teotihuacán murder reveals another type of violence that has nested outside the cartels. A violence that crosses borders and draws attention to the capture of men by hate speech. A phenomenon that has jumped from digital forums to the streets, and that urgently requires specific attention from the State.
