A cousin of one of the nine U.S. victims of a deadly cartel attack in northern Mexico earlier this week, has said his family was not caught in a crossfire.
“This was a direct attack, apparently, from the one cartel,” LeBaron said in a phone interview.
LeBaron said the family initially thought it could have been a case of mistaken identity, but now he wasn't so sure.
"Now we've had quite a bit of evidence that once the attack began, they continued it, knowing that there were women and children in the vehicles. So, as far as why it happened—we're not sure yet.”
The nine victims—three American mothers and six of their children —were killed when they were ambushed by drug cartel gunmen who opened fire on the morning of Nov. 4. The family was traveling in three separate vehicles when cartel members attacked their vehicles on a dirt road between the states of Chihuahua and Sonora, both bordering the United States.
Some were trapped in a burning car while one child was shot dead while trying to flee the scene. The dead belonged to the LeBaron family, a breakaway Mormon community that settled in the hills and plains of northern Mexico decades ago.
On Nov. 6, a suspect was arrested in connection with the deaths, however investigators have since learned the individual was not involved.
Mexican officials said the attackers may have mistaken the group’s large SUVs for those of a rival gang. The Juarez drug cartel and its armed wing, known as “La Linea,” or “The Line,” are fighting a vicious turf war against a faction of the Sinaloa cartel known as the “Salazar.”
“Those who attacked the occupants [of the vehicles], they let the children go, so that we can deduce that it was not a targeted attack” against the families, Army chief of staff Gen. Homero Mendoza said on Nov. 6.
Most of the victims lived about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Douglas, Arizona, in the hamlet La Mora.
The killers were believed to be from La Linea, whose gunmen had entered Sinaloa cartel territory the previous day and had set up an armed outpost on a hilltop near La Mora and an ambush further up the road. The Juarez cartel apparently wanted to prevent Sinaloa gunmen from entering their territory in Chihuahua state.
In a statement following the deadly ambush, President Donald Trump said that the United States is ready to help Mexico clean out cartels that are the principal cause of violence in the country.
“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,” Trump said on Nov. 5.
“If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these 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!”
In another tweet, Trump said: “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. We merely await a call from your great new president!”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said around the same time that he would speak with Trump about possibly cooperating on security issues in the country.