ABC News
David Langford, the Mormon father who lost his wife and two sons in a deadly massacre in Mexico last week, has spoken out about the tragedy for the first time in an interview with World News Tonight Sunday (Nov. 10). His son, Devin, joined him Monday morning to speak with Good Morning America about the harrowing attack in which Devin is being called a hero for what he did to save as many of his family and friends as he could.
“My whole life has turned upside down. 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,” Langford says, holding back tears. “I believe in forgiveness, but I also believe in justice and forgiveness doesn’t rob justice. You don’t get justice too much in Mexico.”
The Nov. 4 attack took the lives of nine women and children, including David’s wife Dawna and sons Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 2.
Devin, who escaped the ambush unharmed, hid his injured siblings in some nearby bushes and then walked 14 miles to nearby La Mora to get help, says the last thing his mother did was tell him and his siblings to “get down” and she started praying.
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Hero teen in deadly Mexico massacre speaks out. “It felt like a lot of bullets.” @TomLlamasABC has the story. t.co/6q46Ko84We
“She was trying to pray to the lord and she was trying to start the car up to get out of there,” Devin tells Good Morning America, emotionally recounting what happened during the deadly ambush.
“[The gunmen] just started hitting [the] car first, like with a bunch, a bunch of bullets. Just start shooting rapidly at us,” he says. “The car didn’t work. So she was just trying right there, starting the car as much as she could, but I’m pretty sure they shot something so the car wouldn’t even start.”
Devin says the shooters had long guns and he feared for his life the entire time he walked to La Mora. He kept wondering if there was “anybody else out there trying to shoot me or following me” and thinking about “my mom and my two brothers that died.” He also says that some of his other siblings tried to flee the scene as well, but they were too injured.
“We walked a little while until we couldn’t carry them no more,” says Devin. “So we put them in the bushes so they wouldn’t get hit or nothing. So I started walking. Every one of them was bleeding really bad. So I was trying to get in a rush to get there.”
Devin doesn’t call himself a hero, but his father says his son is absolutely a hero.
“To be honest with you, my boy’s a hero simply because he gave his life for his brothers and sisters,” says Langford, adding, “Every one of my children that survived that are living miracles. How many bullet holes were fired into that vehicle … at that horrific scene and how many children were involved. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. It’s beyond amazing that they survived.”
The other victims include Rhonita Miller, 30, Howard Miller Jr., 12, Krystal Miller, 10, and 8-month-old twins Titus and Tiana Miller. They were all shot in addition to being burned inside the family vehicle. Another vehicle was found about a mile away with the body of Christina Langford Johnson shot dead beside it.
Evidence has emerged that this ambush was the work of drug cartel hitmen. Langford and much of his extended family are leaving this area of Mexico where they have resided for decades because the drug cartel violence has become inescapable.
“It’s not worth living in fear,” says Langford. “The toughest part for me was saying goodbye … saying goodbye to two innocent lives that were cut short and a vibrant wife that lived a life to its fullest that had many friends and was loved by all by everybody.”