Janos, Mexico — New video shows the moments a 7-month-old baby girl was found alive inside a bullet-ridden SUV after members of her family were killed in Mexico. Christina Langford Johnson hid her baby, named Faith, in the backseat. Officials said she got out with her hands up, but was shot and killed. Faith was found 11 hours later.
Shocked family members were escorted to the site of Monday’s ambush on Wednesday, accompanied by the Mexican Army. Some wept openly at the horror of the crime scene, where three women and six children were killed. Max LeBaron believes his family members were targeted.
“They are just trying to terrorize the community, the people who are here. They are just trying to run us out of our farms,” he said.
Mexican officials disputed that in a news conference on Wednesday. They believe the family drove into an area where there had been a shootout between rival cartel gangs earlier that day and were mistakenly attacked by one of the cartels. Family member Leah Staddon said family members recently had run-ins with armed gangs.
“It’s been getting a little scarier down there in the last few months,” Staddon said.
The community ranches are spread out throughout rugged vast terrain, where the police presence is sporadic and the cartels are free to roam.
The victims were all members of the LeBaron family, a breakaway group of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who settled in Mexico. Five children who were wounded were flown to an Arizona hospital. Three others were uninjured and returned to family members.
Funerals for the victims are scheduled for Thursday. CBS News has seen truckloads of Mexican National Guard soldiers making their way through small towns. They’re escorting the LeBaron family as they travel in caravans.
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