Three family members are dead and a teenager is fighting for his life after they were shot while on a birthday celebration trip in Mexico.
Vicente Peña Jr., 38, and his brother Antonio “Tony” Fernandez, 44, both of Chicago, were killed in the roadside attack in Durango, Mexico, along with 22-year-old Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, another family member who was a resident of the Mexican state.
Peña Jr. and his 14-year-old son, whose name has not been released, traveled to Mexico to celebrate his birthday and to visit family over the holiday when their trip turned into a nightmare.
According to local authorities, the family had been driving a black GMC Yukon with Illinois plates when they were attacked during what officials described as a surge in violent crime in the area.
Peña and his son, along with Fernandez and Aguirre, were found next to the SUV on Friday night with gunshot wounds to their heads.
Details of what led to the shooting are not clear and it is unknown whether this was a targeted attack or a robbery gone wrong.
The three men were killed in the shooting. Only Peña’s son survived. He was seriously injured and placed in a medically-induced coma, according to 6ABC.
“I feel very devastated because they wiped out my entire family,” Vicente Peña, the father of Vicente Peña Jr., told NBC Chicago.
“It was a massacre ... because my son was shot four times in the head and once in the shoulder, and the other boy was also shot four times, once in the shoulder, and the other boy who was with them was also shot three times,” Peña added.”
The teenager’s grandmother, Maria Elena Hernandez, who was home in Chicago at the time of the shooting, told WLS through a translator about the moment she heard the news in a heartbreaking call from her daughter.
“She said ‘Mom, they killed my boy. They killed Junior. They killed my brother-in-law. I don’t know what to do.’”
The non-profit group United Giving Hope is helping the family bring the teenager back to the US.
“As you can only imagine, this is a nightmare for his mother. And right now, what we’re trying to do is provide that advocacy and security,” Julia Contreras of United Giving Hope said. “It is very heart-wrenching and currently this family is living a nightmare. We just want to bring them home so they can be safe.”
Family members are also hoping to bring back Peña Jr. and Fernandez to give them a proper burial in Chicago.
The tragic shooting is just the latest in a spate of violent crime that has become a routine occurrence in parts of Mexico
The U.S. State Department said violent crime such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery, is widespread and common in Mexico and urged travelers to avoid Michoacán state due to its crime, according to a Mexico travel advisory.
The advisory comes as many Americans’ dream vacations to Mexico turned into real life nightmares.
Earlier this month, Gloria Ambriz, 50, and Rafael Cardona, 53, who were on vacation visiting family, were traveling in the western state of Michoacán in a black 2016 Ford Platinum pickup truck when gunmen opened fire, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles, citing the state attorney general’s office.
In May, two Australians and an American were killed on a surfing trip when thieves attempted to steal the tires from their truck.
Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad, were last seen on a camping trip in the city of Ensenada when they vanished. Their bodies were later found with gunshot wounds to their heads.
And in 2021, four American tourists were injured and two alleged dealers shot dead when armed gangsters arrived to “execute” their rivals, right in front of a five star luxury resort where roughly 750 LGBTQ travellers were on a group trip.
About two weeks earlier, a Californian travel blogger and a German tourist were killed in a similar crossfire between street-level crooks in nearby Tulum.
