Technological University of Guadalajara attack

On 6 March 2024, 20-year-old Gabriel Alejandro Galaviz murdered two people and injured another using a hatchet and three knives at the Technological University of Guadalajara (Universidad Tecnológica de Guadalajara, UTEG) before being arrested by responding police officers. He had previously murdered a woman at a nearby motel.

After his arrest, he was charged and remanded in pretrial detention at the Puente Grande Metropolitan Prison. Five months later, he committed suicide while imprisoned.

The event is the deadliest school attack in the history of Mexico.

At around 1:50 p.m., the suspect entered the Gran Vía Motel, located at the intersection of Calzada Independencia and Washington Avenue. There, he paid for a room and met with a woman identified as 25-year-old Mónica Abigail Najar Susilla. After murdering her in the room, he left the premises around 4:40 p.m. and headed to the university campus. Security camera footage confirmed his involvement in the first murder committed at the motel.^[1]

At around 5:20 p.m., the suspect entered the Olímpica Campus of the UTEG University Center, located at the intersection of Calzada Olímpica and Marcelino García Barragán Street. He randomly attacked two women in the reception area: Blanca Lilia Rodríguez Galeana, 37, an administrative employee, and Ana Gabriela, an admissions coordinator.^[2] Both died at the scene.^[3] He also injured Diego Aurelio, 25, an academic assistant at the institution.

The attacker then broke the glass doors leading to the classrooms and pursued the students with an axe in hand, attempting to attack more people. When authorities arrived, he attempted to barricade himself in the library, blocking the entrance with a pair of chairs. However, he was eventually subdued and arrested by Municipal Police officers.

The attacker was identified as 20-year-old Gabriel Alejandro Galaviz (30 March 2003 – 5 August 2024). UTEG confirmed that he had no relationship with the institution. The Jalisco State Attorney General, Luis Joaquín Méndez Ruíz, preliminarily reported that the individual could be part of a virtual community dedicated to worshipping violent crimes, possibly inspiring him. Even so, authorities have not been able to clearly determine the motive behind the attacker's decision to attack that specific campus.

José Antonio Pérez Juárez, head of the Jalisco General Directorate of Prevention and Social Reintegration, mentioned that the individual had displayed alarming behavior since childhood, manifested in an early history of animal abuse. He also pointed out that there was a total disconnection with his parents, which led Gabriel to leave home years ago and to depend, since then, on the financial support of a brother to survive. He regretted that the warning signs had not been attended to in time.^[4][5]

Hours before committing the murders, Galaviz posted on his Facebook profile the phrase: "Today is the day." This expression, possibly used as a reference, had already been uttered by José Ángel Ramos Betts, perpetrator of the Colegio Cervantes shooting.^[6] Later on, he uploaded two photographs in which he displayed his arsenal and posed in front of the mirror in the bathroom of the motel room; the skull mask covered his face evoked that of Guilherme Taucci Monteiro, one of the two perpetrators of the Suzano massacre, whom Galaviz had referenced in his profile.^[7]

During his legal process, his lawyer argued that he had committed the crimes while mentally disturbed, declaring him unaccountable. During his incarceration, he was isolated and protected due to the high profile of his crime.^[8]

On August 5, 2024, Gabriel Alejandro's death was confirmed at the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara after jumping six meters from the second floor of the Puente Grande Metropolitan Prison.^[9] A hearing had been scheduled for September 14 of that year, the same day his pretrial detention was set to expire.^[10]

• San Andrés Preparatory School attack, another school attack that occurred in the same city eight months later with a nearly identical arsenal