It looks like a typical tourist photo, as British Columbia woman Barbara Welsh and her friends smile near the foot of the famous Pyramid of the Moon at the Teotihuacan site northeast of Mexico City on Monday.
But in the background, clambering the pyramid’s stairs, a man in a checked shirt can be seen, carrying something in his right hand.
Moments later, he pulled out a gun and started shooting, sending people tumbling down the pyramid.
Officials have said they are working to understand the motive of the shooter, who reportedly planned the attack, played strange music, ranted about hating tourists and fired randomly.
“We didn’t really know what it was,” Welsh said of hearing first shots.
“And then we heard another one and then I looked up and it was like a waterfall of people just rolling down the Pyramid of the Moon.”
Welsh said their private guide screamed at the group of seven B.C. women to run as soon as the gunfire sounded, and they took off toward the parking lot.
Within five minutes, she said the group had boarded the tour van and the driver was fleeing the site. They could still hear the shooting from the van.
“We could still hear the shots as we were getting out of there. They went on for like over 20 minutes,” she said.
Officials have confirmed a Canadian woman was killed and at least 13 other visitors were hurt in the attack.
The injured were in stable condition, officials said.
The Security Cabinet of Mexico identified the one Canadian taken to hospital as 29-year-old Delicia Li de Yong. It said the other injured people were from the United States, Russia, the Netherlands and Brazil. The youngest was a six-year-old boy from Colombia.
The identity of the Canadian woman who was killed has not yet been disclosed.
Authorities identified the attacker as 27-year-old Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, a native of Guerrero, Mexico, who they said arrived in Teotihuacan a day earlier in an Uber and stayed in a hotel.
Then on Monday shortly before noon, while atop the Pyramid of the Moon, he began firing at tourists with an old revolver while holding a plastic bag containing 52 .38-calibre cartridges in his other hand, said Jose Luis Cervantes Martinez, the attorney general of the state of Mexico, which includes Teotihuacan.
The assailant, who acted alone, shot and killed himself, authorities said, and security officials found a gun, a knife and ammunition at the scene.
Welsh said her group was about halfway through their guided tour of the site when the shooting began.
She said she and one of her friends had climbed down the pyramid minutes before the photo was taken to rejoin the group, saying the altitude bothered them.
She said that decision to turn back may have saved their lives because 15 minutes later, the attack began.
“It was just luck — total luck — that my girlfriend and I weren’t at the top of the pyramid at the time,” Welsh said.
“We were just in shock mostly,” Welsh said as she reflected on the tragedy. “It was just horrible but it could have been worse.”
Though they are shaken up, Welsh said the experience does not taint her view of Mexico City and won’t deter the group, who usually plan a trip together once a year, from travelling again.
“You can’t anticipate something like this,” she said.
“It can happen anywhere. I really hope that this doesn’t affect Mexico City for sure, because it is a lovely place.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press
