At Least 5 Members of Mormon Family Are Killed in Ambush in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — At least five members of a prominent Mormon family were killed on Monday when their vehicles were ambushed in northern Mexico by gunmen believed to be members of organized crime, officials said. The attack alarmed the nation even as it has been buffeted by record violence this year.

The LeBarón family, which has been living in the border region for decades, several family members said, were traveling in three separate vehicles when the gunmen attacked. While officials said the toll was at least five, family members said it was higher, with one putting it at nine, including six children.

That relative and other family members said several children were rescued, some having hidden by the roadside to escape the attackers.

Details of the attack remained murky early Tuesday, as state and local authorities struggled to determine the extent of the violence, and how exactly it unfolded.

It was unclear whether the attackers intentionally targeted the family, which has historically spoken out about the criminal groups that plague the northern border states of Sonora and Chihuahua, or whether it was a case of mistaken identity.

Whatever the case, the violence shook Mexicans as grisly details emerged about the attack, which left the bodies of children incinerated.

Julian LeBarón, a cousin of the three women who were driving the vehicles, said in a telephone interview that the women and their children were traveling from the state of Sonora to the state of Chihuahua.

His cousin Rhonita was traveling to Phoenix to pick up her husband, who works in North Dakota and was returning to celebrate the couple’s wedding anniversary. Her car broke down, Mr. LeBarón said, and the gunmen “opened fire on Rhonita and torched her car.”

She was killed, along with an 11-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and twins who were less than a year old, he said.

About eight miles ahead, the two other cars were also attacked, killing the two other women, Dawna Langford and Christina Langford, Mr. LeBarón said. Dawna Langford’s 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl were also killed, he said.

“Six little kids were killed, and seven made it out alive,” he said.

The women were traveling along a route they had taken many times before between the two Mormon communities of La Mora in Sonora and Colonia Lebarón in Chihuahua.

The massacre came a decade after two other members of the LeBarón family were kidnapped and murdered after they confronted the drug gangs that exercise de facto control over the empty endless spaces of the borderlands south of Arizona.

Multiple family members posted a video, said to have been taken after the attack, showing a charred vehicle riddled with bullet holes, with smoke still rising from it.

Family members took to social media to implore the governments of Mexico and the United States to do something about the intensifying violence in Mexico, in particular in the areas along the northern border, where Mormons and Mennonites have lived for decades despite the threat from rampant organized crime.

Many took particular aim at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose government has struggled to articulate a coherent security strategy even as homicides mount and organized crime groups have carried out increasingly brazen attacks both against citizens and the state.

In the aftermath of Monday’s attack, the government deployed the newly formed National Guard as well as the military to the area to assist with the search for missing family members believed to have fled when they came under attack.

Azam Ahmed and Elisabeth Malkin reported from Mexico City, and Daniel Victor from Hong Kong.