One minute, he was enjoying a tour of Mexico’s iconic pyramid site, the next he found himself standing barely 40 feet from a gunman, forcing him to jump about 15 feet off a ledge in a desperate bid to find cover.
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Greg Magadini of Boise, Idaho, described how a visit to one of the world’s most popular tourist and archeological attractions devolved into a terrifying scene amid the thundering sound of gunshots.
One of the American tourists who survived the deadly shooting at Teotihuacán’s Pyramid of the Moon on Monday, Magadini recalled hearing the first shot while visiting the site with his friends as part of an 11-person tour. It sounded like “a big crack,” he said.
As the gunman was shooting, the echo of the pyramids further amplified the loud gunshot sounds, he told NBC News from Mexico City.
The gunman was standing some 40 feet from him when Magadini jumped about 15 feet off the pyramid’s ledge, as he attempted to find cover.
“It was really scary,” he said.
On Tuesday, Mexican authorities identified the gunman as Julio César Jasso Ramírez. They said Jasso, 27, fatally shot a Canadian woman and wounded seven other people before killing himself.
Teotihuacán’s archeological site will remain closed until further notice, according to officials.
Abigail Stoddard, another American tourist who witnessed the shooting, said “we started to hear gunshots and we didn’t think anything of it because we were told maybe there were fireworks.”
Stoddard, who was with her boyfriend visiting Mexico City from Portland, Maine, said they hid behind a wall after they saw people running.
“We did see the woman, the Canadian woman at the top who was fatally shot,” Stoddard said, adding that she could see the woman’s body “lying there” as she witnessed what transpired from across another nearby pyramid.
“It was pretty scary,” she said in an interview from Mexico City.
Mexican Attorney General José Luis Cervantes Martínez said Tuesday that authorities found a backpack they said belonged to Jasso. Cervantes said it contained a firearm, a blade and 52 live rounds of ammunition as well as “literature, images and handwritten notes” that appear to be related to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
The evidence collected so far “suggests a psychopathic profile of the aggressor,” Cervantes Martínez said.
Stoddard said one of the people who was wounded was a little boy, who got shot in the leg.
“His father, he carried him down the temple and across the field.” she said. “It was really, really hard to see. This poor boy, he was screaming out for help.”
Cervantes Martínez added that among the injured were a 6-year-old and a 13-year-old.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday at her daily morning press conference that “our solidarity goes out to the families of those who lost their lives, as well as to all those currently receiving care in hospitals and everyone who endured this situation yesterday.”
According to Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s secretary of security, his agency received a report of an armed individual attacking civilians at about 11 a.m. Monday in Teotihuacán’s ceremonial center.
Less than 25 minutes later, a wide range of government agencies began responding to the report. That’s when the first images showing “the aggressor threatening some tourists” at the La Luna pyramid began circulating, García Harfuch said at the press conference.
The gunman then began firing at authorities upon their arrival and they responded with gunfire before Jasso took his own life, according to officials.
Stoddard said she witnessed the crossfire between the suspect and police as she took cover behind a wall.
“The gunman, he was at the top of the pyramids and he was looking down,” Stoddard said.
In addition to the seven people who were wounded by the gunman, six others were seriously injured during the incident, García Harfuch said. Six of the seven wounded people have already been released from the hospital.
Magadini said one of his friends hurt her ankle on a ledge while trying to find cover and he went to the hospital with her to get treatment. He said he was OK, apart from “minor scratches.”
