At least three women and six children, all U.S. citizens, were killed when they were ambushed in Mexico, family members said.
Members of the LeBarón family, who lived in a Mormon community in northern Mexico for decades, were traveling in three vehicles on Monday when gunmen attacked. Family members told the New York Times one child was shot while running away and others were trapped inside a burning vehicle.
Two of the children killed were less than a year old, family members said.
Julian LeBarón, a cousin of the three women who were driving the vehicles, said one of the women, Rhonita, was on her way to Phoenix to pick up her husband, who works in North Dakota and was returning home to celebrate their wedding anniversary when her car broke down. The gunmen “opened fire on Rhonita and torched her car,” he said. The woman, a 9-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy, and twins less than a year old were killed, he said.
The two other cars, about eight miles ahead, were also ambushed. The two women driving, a 4-year-old boy, and a 6-year-old girl were killed, LeBarón said.
“Six little kids were killed, and seven made it out alive,” LeBarón said, adding that one of the women got out of her car and put her hands up when “they shot her point blank in the chest.”
A video, said to be taken after the massacre, shows a charred vehicle with dozens of bullet holes.
LeBarón said it’s unclear what the motives of the gunmen are, and the family had not received any threats besides general warnings not to travel to Chihuahua, where the family bought groceries and gas.
The gunmen are believed to be members of organized crime, and the surviving children were taken to a nearby hospital.
The LeBarón family settled in Mexico in the 1940s, though Kenny LeBarón, another cousin of the women, said much of his family lives in North Dakota, but they regularly travel to Mexico for holidays and vacations.
A decade ago, two other members of the family were kidnapped and murdered when they confronted drug gangs who have claimed control of the borderlands south of Arizona.
