Americans Murdered, Raped, Babies Burned
BY PAUL PRESTON
President Donald Trump has waged a war on Mexican drug cartels after three American mothers and six children from a Mormon community based in northern Mexico were massacred by cartel gunmen.
The victims, who belonged to the LeBaron family, were ambushed about eight miles apart in the Mexican border state of Sonora on Monday.
At the time of the attack, 17 of the family members were traveling in three cars from La Mora – a breakaway settlement founded decades ago in northern Mexico as part an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
There are reports some of the family members, who were dual U.S.-Mexico citizens, were heading to celebrate a wedding anniversary.
Several family members have since described horrific scenes, including how gunmen opened fire on one child running away and others burning to death inside a car that was torched.
@realDonaldTrump The mafia in a Mexico have killed 4 and kidnapped 10 of my family this morning. They are all American citizens. All women and children. Please help us find and save them! We’ve gone to the Mexican government for help, and have received little. We are desperate. pic.twitter.com/IoSgW1sYgC
— Tiffany Langford (@TiffLangford) November 4, 2019
Other young children managed to escape and hide by the roadside while one of the mothers was shot in the chest as she put her hands up to surrender. Relatives fear some of the victims may have been raped.
One family member has described how a boy managed to hide his wounded siblings – some less than a year old – in bushes before he ran back to the nearby town to get help after his mother was gunned down.
It was unclear what motivated the killings, which took place on a dirt road between Chihuahua and Sonora states, both bordering the United States. Family members believe it was an attempted kidnapping after one relative reported receiving a phone call hearing screams before they were executed.
Family members say Rhonita Maria LeBaron was driving to Phoenix on Monday with her four children to pick up her husband and then return to Mexico to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
The relatives say her car had broken down when gunmen opened fire and torched her vehicle causing the gas tank to explode.
She was killed along with her twin six-month-old babies, Titus and Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard.
A video posted on social media showed the charred and smoking remains of the vehicle riddled with bullet holes that was apparently carrying the victims when the attack happened.
‘This is for the record,’ a male voice with an American accent can be heard saying while filming the clip.
‘Nita and four of my grandchildren are burnt and shot up,’ he said.
Eight miles away in different attacks, several other family members were gunned down.
Christina Langford Johnson, 29, Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and two of Dawna’s children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, also died while while traveling in two other SUVs.
Family members say Christina saved her seven-month-old baby Faith’s life by throwing the infant to the floor of their SUV as bullets tore through the vehicle. Relatives say the baby had been in the back of the car all day before rescuers found her.
Seven of Dawna’s children survived but suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to relatives.
