At least 9 U.S. citizens living in Mexico killed in highway ambush

At least nine members of a family of U.S. citizens living in Mexico were killed in what appears to be a highway ambush.

Three women and six children from the LeBarón family were killed while driving between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua on Monday evening, per The Washington Post.

The LeBarón family is part of a fundamentalist Mormon and "polygamist" sect separate from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a spokesperson for LDS told CNN. The family held dual U.S.–Mexican citizenship, and was driving to the La Mora community of Mormons when the driver of one car got a flat tire. The mother driving the car and her four children, including a set of twins less than a year old, were shot and killed and their vehicle was set on fire, NBC News reports via local media. Other cars in the caravan returned to help and were also ambushed.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

All three of the women driving cars were reportedly killed, as well as at least six children. Several children escaped, but some were shot and survived, and were then airlifted to a hospital in Arizona, CNN continues. Officials say the attack appears to be a case of mistaken identity, in which an organized crime group took the family for a rival group.

The attack prompted President Trump to tweet an offer to help Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in "cleaning out these monsters," and López Obrador said he'd talk to Trump about it.