MEXICO CITY -- Drug cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road, killing six children and three women -- all U.S. citizens living in northern Mexico -- in a grisly attack that left one vehicle a burned-out, bullet-riddled hulk, authorities said Tuesday.
The dead included 8-month-old twins. Eight youngsters were found alive after escaping from the vehicles and hiding in the brush, but at least five had gunshot wounds or other injuries and were taken to the U.S. for treatment, officials said.
One woman was killed after she apparently jumped out of her vehicle and waved her hands to show she wasn't a threat, according to family members and prosecutors.
Mexican Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the gunmen may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for those of rival gangs.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ-QNQOab-4]
The bloodshed took place Monday in a remote, mountainous area in northern Mexico where the Sinaloa cartel has been engaged in a turf war. The victims had set out to visit relatives in Mexico; one woman was headed to the airport in Phoenix to meet her husband.
While drug-related violence has been raging for years in Mexico, the attack underscored the way cartel gunmen have become increasingly unconcerned about killing children as collateral damage. Around the ambush scene, which stretched for miles, investigators found more than 200 shell casings, mostly from assault rifles.
"Lately it's getting worse. This is a whole new level," said Taylor Langford, a relative of the dead who splits his time between the Mexican community and his home in the Salt Lake City suburb of Herriman, Utah.
In a tweet, President Donald Trump offered to help Mexico "wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth." But Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected that approach, saying his predecessors waged war, "and it didn't work."
Lopez Obrador said it was up to Mexico to deal with the matter.
"We appreciate and thank very much President Trump and any foreign government that wants to help, but in these cases we have to act with independence, according to our constitution and our tradition of independence and sovereignty," he said.
The victims lived in Sonora state, about 70 miles south of Douglas, Ariz., in the hamlet of La Mora, which was founded decades ago by an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many La Mora residents call themselves Mormons but are not affiliated with the church.
A number of such American farming communities are clustered around the Chihuahua-Sonora state border. Many members were born in Mexico and have dual citizenship. While some of the splinter groups were once polygamous, many no longer are.
All of the victims were apparently related to the extended LeBaron family in Chihuahua, whose members have run afoul of the drug traffickers over the years. Benjamin LeBaron, an anti-crime activist who founded neighborhood patrols against cartels, was killed in 2009.
"My younger boys went to school with two of those boys. They found out in school what had happened," said Brent LeBaron, a relative who was doing construction work in Montana when he received the news. "It was heartbreaking to hear their cries and sadness."
Prosecutors said the woman who waved her arms, Christina Langford Johnson, was found about 16 yards away from her Chevrolet Suburban, shot to death. Her 7-month-old daughter, Faith Marie Johnson, was discovered uninjured in her car seat.
Kendra Miller, a relative, wrote that the baby's car seat "seemed to be put on the floor by her mother to try and protect her. ... She gave her life to try and save the rest."
A short distance away, Dawna Ray Langford, 43, lay dead in the front seat of another Suburban, along with the bullet-riddled bodies of her sons, ages 11 and 2.
Of the children who escaped, one had been shot in the face, another in the foot. One girl suffered gunshot wounds in her back and foot.
Cowering in the brush, one boy hid the other children and then walked back to La Mora to get help. Another girl, who was initially listed as missing, walked off in another direction, despite her gunshot wounds, to get help.
A group of male relatives set out to try to rescue the youngsters but turned back when they heard gunfire ahead.
A relative of the dead who did not want his name used for fear of retaliation said in an interview that when they finally made it to the scene where the ambush started -- about 11 miles from where the two other mothers were killed -- they found a burned-out Chevrolet Tahoe.
Inside, they saw the charred remains of Rhonita Miller, 30; her 10-year-old daughter; a son, 12; and her 8-month-old twins. They were "burnt to a crisp," the relative said.
The gunmen had riddled the vehicle with dozens of bullets and apparently hit the gas tank, causing it to explode.
"When we were there, the cartels from Sonora, there were probably 50 or 60 of them, armed to the teeth, about a mile on this side," said the relative.
Trump tweeted that a "wonderful family" got "caught between two vicious drug cartels."
He said the U.S. "stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively," adding, "The cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!"
But Mexico's president said: "The worst thing you can have is war."
Later, the two leaders spoke by telephone, and Trump offered U.S. assistance "to ensure the perpetrators face justice," the White House said without giving details.
It was the second failure in recent weeks for Lopez Obrador's anti-crime strategy. Two weeks ago, Mexican forces seized a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman but had to release him after cartel henchmen set off a furious counterattack in Culiacan, Sinaloa.
On Tuesday, Lopez Obrador defended his security strategy in the face of the drumbeat of violence and rising criticism that his government appears to be improvising against the power of criminal groups.
"You cannot put out fire with fire," he said.
The president said: "There will be intelligence, which has been lacking, more than force. There will be prosecution, punishment. There will be a lot of attention to the population, especially for young people."
Lopez Obrador has created a National Guard with about 70,000 troops to improve security, and provided millions of young people with scholarships aimed at discouraging them from involvement in organized crime. But Mexico is on track for its deadliest year in recent history, with nearly 26,000 people slain in the first nine months of 2019.
The 2009 killing of Benjamin LeBaron marked a watershed in Mexico's 2006-12 drug war. Gunmen tortured him in front of his family, then killed him and his brother-in-law.
But those killings -- which sparked a further crackdown on cartels -- also make clear how much worse things have become: No children were killed back then.
In August in Chihuahua, cartel gunmen fired 123 bullets at a man and also killed three girls, ages 4, 13 and 14.
Taylor Langford said after Monday's bloodshed: "I would like to see the government actually step in and do something about the cartels rather than back down every time they wave their guns at us."
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Stevenson of The Associated Press; by Azam Ahmed, Elisabeth Malkin and Daniel Victor of The New York Times; and by Mary Beth Sheridan, Brittany Shammas, Kayla Epstein, Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Gabriela Martinez of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/06/2019