At least nine Mormon family members were horrifically slaughtered Monday in an attack at the U.S.-Mexico border. The victims include three women and six children, two of whom were infants.
NPR reports that authorities believe the family was ambushed by gang members while traveling between the states of Chihuahua and Sonora. Each person killed was reportedly a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen.
The victims were members of the LeBaron family. The LeBarons have lived on the Mexico side of the border for several decades since separating from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints after the church stopped endorsing polygamy.
Not everyone was killed in the attack, though. Six children were injured and one minor escaped unharmed.
Family member Alex LeBaron tells CNN that the slain victims were “all shot while in vehicles driving.”
“Women and children (between 14 years old and 10 months) were massacred, burned alive,” LeBaron said. “Mothers were screaming for the fire to stop.”
Police believe that criminal groups ambushed three vehicles and attacked due to mistaken identity.
Authorities took the seven survivors of the attack to Douglas, Arizona, so they could be taken to hospitals.
In response to the vicious attack, President Donald Trump urged Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez to discuss security with the U.S. and offered aid in “cleaning out these monsters”:
A wonderful family and friends from Utah got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other, with the result being many great American people killed, including young children, and some missing. If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2019
….monsters, the United States stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively. The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2019
“This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,” Trump tweeted.
Lopez has agreed to such a discussion, according to Reuters, but said he did not want Mexico’s independence compromised. {eoa}
