Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A 13-year-old boy who survived the ambush that killed nine of his family members in Mexico said Monday the gunmen carried rifles and appeared to shoot the family's vehicle so that it wouldn't start.
Devin Langford was in the car with his mother and siblings in the Mexican border state of Sonora when men who appeared to be wearing bulletproof vests started shooting at the vehicle, he said in an interview with ABC News.
"They just started hitting [the] car first, like with a bunch, a bunch of bullets," Devin said in the interview, which aired Monday on Good Morning America, sitting next to his father, David Langford. "Just start shooting rapidly at us. 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."
His mother, Dawna Langford, was praying to God while telling her children to "get down right now," Devin said.
"Afterward, they got us out of the car, and they just got us on the floor and then they drove off," Devin said.
Devin was unharmed and hid his siblings, who were wounded and bleeding, under some brush while he walked 14 miles to find help.
He said he didn't know "if there was anybody else out there trying to shoot meet me or following me" and he thought about "my mom and my two brothers that died."
Devin said his siblings were too injured to walk because they'd been hit by bullets.
"We walked a little while until we couldn't carry them no more. And so we put them in the bushes so they wouldn't get hit or nothing. So I started walking," Devin said. "Every one of them were bleeding really bad. So I was trying to get in a rush to get there."
Mexican authorities have asked the U.S. FBI for help in finding the attackers in the Nov. 4 ambush.
Funerals were held last week and over the weekend for the nine family members who were killed in the attack: Dawna Langford; Trevor, 11; Rogan, 2; Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 29; Rhonita Miller, 30; Howard Miller, 12; Krystal Miller, 10; and infant twins Titus and Tiana Miller.
David Langford said all his children that survived 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. To be honest with you, my boy's a hero simply because he gave his life for his brothers and sisters."
He said he plans to move away from northwest Mexico because of the violence from Mexican drug cartels. A caravan of families, part of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that has lived in the area for decades, fled Mexico over the weekend.
"It's not worth living in fear," David Langford said. "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 the fullest that had many friends and was loved by everybody."
