Mexico — At least nine U.S. citizens, including six children, who lived in a Mormon community in northern Mexico were killed Monday in a hail of gunfire, according to family members and Mexican officials. A source told CBS News one theory is that the group was intentionally targeted. Supporting that scenario, the ambush was not short and was spread out for miles.
Another scenario, other investigators said, is that the family was caught in the middle of a battle between two rival drug gangs. The Mexican government has spoken about this scenario.
Family members told "CBS This Morning" that the FBI has opened an investigation into the killings. It happened Monday near the town of Bavispe, about 100 miles south of the Arizona border. The victims all left their community at the same time in three separate cars, some were traveling back to the U.S., some to a neighboring town for a wedding.
Suddenly, the convoy of SUVs was sprayed with gunfire. There were so many rounds that family members said one of the cars exploded.
The families are members of the La Mora settlement, a decades-old community in Sonora state founded as an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
One relative said he located one of the burned-out, bullet-ridden SUVs containing the remains of his nephew's wife and her four children, twin seven-month-old babies and two other children aged 8 and 10.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau said in a tweet that Mexican authorities had informed their U.S. counterparts that the dead included three women and six children.
Jhon LeBaron, one of the relatives, posted on his Facebook page that his aunt and another woman were dead. He said six of his aunt's children had been left abandoned but alive on a roadside. He wrote late Monday that a total of 17 of his family members were in the three-vehicle convoy when it came under attack. He said nine were killed, six wounded, and two left unharmed.
Another relative, Julian LeBaron, identified one of the slain adults on his Facebook page as Rhonita Maria LeBaron. Jhon identified her as Maria Ronita LeBaron. She was apparently killed along with her twin seven-month-old babies and two of her other seven children.
The first relative said the convoy set out Monday from La Mora, about 70 miles south of Douglas, Arizona, but was attacked by cartel gunmen in a possible case of mistaken identity. Many of the church's members were born in Mexico and thus have dual citizenship.
Video emerged showing the still-smoldering remains of one SUV ditched along a road in a remote area. The inside of the vehicle was completely burned out.
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