3 dead, teen fighting for life after American family gunned down on Mexico vacation: ‘It was a massacre’

A Chicago teen is in critical condition after he was shot in the head during a birthday trip to Mexico — while his father, uncle, and cousin were gunned down in what their family is calling “a massacre.”

“They wiped out my entire family,” the 14-year-old boy’s grandfather, Vicente Peña, told NBC Chicago.

“I feel very devastated.”

The boy — who has not been named — remains in Mexico in a medically induced coma, while his father Vicente Peña Jr., 38; his 44-year-old uncle Antonio Fernandez; and Mexican local and cousin Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, 22, were killed.

They had traveled to Mexico to celebrate the teen’s birthday and were driving in an SUV with Illinois plates near the small Durango town of Las Palmas on Dec. 27 when shots rang out.

Exactly what happened remains unclear as few details have been released by authorities, but the victims’ bodies were found near their car, which was abandoned on the side of the road.

“It was a massacre,” the grandfather said. “My son was shot four times in the head and once in the shoulder.”

The others were also shot in similar patterns, with multiple wounds to the head and shoulders, Peña revealed.

Photos from the scene showed the SUV driven off the road with all its doors thrown open, and the bodies of the family scattered around the grass about it.

Officials have said only that the killings were part of a surge in crime across Durango.

Doctors in Mexico have advised that the boy remain in the country until his condition improves, and his family is raising funds for his eventual transfer back to the States.

“Thank God he will not leave us now, but they will not provide insurance for him anymore,” his grandmother, Maria Elena Hernandez, told NBC. “I ask for justice.”

No suspects have been identified in the horrific attack.

The US State Department has a Level 2 travel advisory in place for all of Mexico, which cautions that tourists should travel with increased caution.

“Violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common in Mexico,” the advisory stated.

Just two weeks before the teen and his relatives were attacked, another American family was fatally gunned down in Mexico.

Rafael Cardona, 53, and Gloria Ambriz, 50, from California, were found shot dead in a pickup truck in Michoacán on Dec. 11.

The couple had been visiting family when they pulled up to an intersection, and gunmen unloaded a volley of shots at them.

Back in May, two Australian brothers, Jake and Callum Robinson, 30 and 33, and their 30-year-old American friend Jack Carter Rhoad were murdered while surfing in Ensenada.

Authorities believe the three were targeted by local thieves who wanted to steal their tires, and that the victims may have resisted and been shot dead for it.

Several suspects have been arrested in their murders.