Man Whose Wife and Kids Were Killed in Ambush Speaks: 'You Don't Get Justice Too Much in Mexico'
A man whose wife and two sons were massacred in Mexico on Nov. 4 has chosen to speak about the brutal murders and discuss his decision to take his family out of the country.
David Langford, who lost his 43-year-old wife Dawna Langford and sons Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 2, in an ambush attack by a group of gunmen on a caravan of mothers and children in the state of Chihuahua, touched on a variety of subjects in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
Langford was joined for the interview by his 13-year-old son Devin.
The teenager survived the ambush and was able to walk about 14 miles to the village of La Mora to seek help for his injured siblings, whom he hid in the bushes before leaving.
“We walk a little while till we couldn’t carry them no more,” Devin Langford said.
“And so we put them behind a bush and I wasn’t hit or nothing, so I started walking. Because everyone of them were bleeding really bad, so I was trying to get in a rush to get there.”
David Langford lauded his son as a hero.
“To be honest with you, my boy is a hero simply because he gave his life for his brothers and sisters,” he said.
Langford marveled at the survival of Devin and his other children.
“Every one of my children that survived that are living miracles. It’s beyond amazing that they survived.”
While the father also expressed his belief in forgiveness, he made it clear that forgiveness and justice are not mutually exclusive.
“I believe in forgiveness, but I also believe in justice. And forgiveness doesn’t rob justice. And you don’t get justice too much in Mexico.”
Langford told ABC that the massacre of his wife and sons has forced him to move his family out of Mexico.
“Not only have I lost a wife and two children, but I’m having to move the rest of my family with really no place to go at this point,” he said.
“The toughest part for me was saying goodbye.”
Langford’s decision to pull his family from the violence-torn country appears to be a judicious one.
Murders in Mexico in the first half of the year reached an all-time high in 2019, Reuters reported in July.
While the nation’s total of 29,111 murders in 2018 was also a record, Mexico is on to pace to surpass that number this year.
In addition, a 2019 Congressional Research Service report revealed that, according to many sources, there have been 150,000 “murders related to organized crime” in Mexico since 2006.
That number accounts for between 30 to 50 percent of Mexico’s total intentional homicides.
Grim stories such as the August discovery of nine bodies hanging from an overpass accompanied by a drug cartel banner in the state of Michoacán only underscore the brutality of cartel-related violence in the country.
Considering Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s stated preference for the slogan “hugs not bullets” in fighting the cartels, leaving Mexico is the only prudent response for Americans like Langford.
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