At least nine members of a local American Mormon family — six of whom were children — were gunned down and killed in broad daylight in northern Mexico, according to relatives of the victims.
Family members have speculated the LeBarons — fundamentalist Mormons who’ve lived in the border region for decades — were ambushed by cartel shooters on Monday on a dirt road near the town of Bavispe. Jhon LeBaron, one of the relatives, wrote on Facebook that 17 family members were traveling in a three-car caravan when they were gunned down, and that his aunt and two of her children were among the dead.
“My heart is completely broken,” he wrote. “This feels like a bad dream I want to wake up from.”
Footage the family says is from the scene shows an entirely burned-out car riddled with bullet holes. Kenny LeBaron, a cousin of a woman driving in the caravan traveling between the Chihuahua and Sonora states, told the New York Times he worried the death toll could rise.
“When you know there are babies tied in a car seat that are burning because of some twisted evil that’s in this world,” he said, “it’s just hard to cope with that.”
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President Donald Trump claimed on Twitter that the family “got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other.”
“If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” he added.
Despite the president’s tweets, the exact details of the incident are not yet clear. But the shooting is shocking even in a region that has regularly seen awful violence. It was not clear if the family, which has spoken out against cartels, was targeted, or if it was a case of mistaken identity. The state governments of Chihuahua and Sonora said they have launched an investigation and that additional security personnel were being sent to the region.
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Julian LeBaron, a cousin of the women killed, told the Times that the family had not received any specific threats, just general warnings not to travel to Chihuahua, where they often go to get supplies.
“We need the Mexican people to say at some point, we’ve had enough,” he said. “We need accountability; we don’t have that on any level.”
The breakaway Mormon community has lived in the region for decades and has been subject to violence before. Two members of the Lebaron family were kidnapped and killed a decade ago after they confronted gangs that controlled the area.
Cover: Twitter/Alex LeBaron
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