— Two of the four Americans who were kidnapped in a Mexican border city last week are dead, Mexican officials said Tuesday morning.
“Approximately one hour ago we confirmed that the four Americans were located,” Tamaulipas state governor Americo Villarreal said in a phone call during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s daily news conference. “Thirty-five minutes ago we got confirmation from the prosecutor’s office that of the four people, two were found dead, one wounded and one alive. Ambulances are rushing to the area to recover them and offer them medical care.”
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A Mexican official said the Americans were found in the village of Tecolote, about 15 miles from the border city of Matamoros, the site of the kidnapping Friday.
Officials did not immediately name the victims. The Americans have been identified by family members as three friends who were accompanying a fourth who planned to undergo a medical procedure there.
Latavia “Tay” McGee, her cousin Shaeed Woodard and friends Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams, traveling in a minivan with North Carolina plates, had reportedly just crossed over the border from Brownsville, Tex., to Matamoros when they were fired on and abducted by unidentified assailants.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for their return and the arrest of those responsible.
Video appears to show violent kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” Zalandria Brown told the Associated Press before the deaths were announced. She identified one of the kidnap victims as her younger brother Zindell Brown of Myrtle Beach, S.C.
One member of the group intended to undergo the cosmetic medical procedure known as a tummy tuck, Zalandria Brown said.
Video and photographs from the scene verified by The Washington Post show armed men wearing protective vests forcing a woman into the back of a white pickup and dragging three other people to the truck trailing what appears to be blood on the ground. A fifth person can be seen lying on the sidewalk, apparently injured. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico in a statement said “an innocent Mexican citizen” was killed in the confrontation.
Christina Hickson, the mother of 28-year-old Zindell Brown, told ABC affiliate WPDE in Myrtle Beach that she identified her son from footage of the kidnapping shared online.
“I was able to follow each one as they would be placed on the truck,” she said. “I knew immediately that was him.”
Zalandria Brown said “to see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”
Latavia McGee was traveling to Mexico from South Carolina for a medical procedure, her mother Barbara Burgess, 54, told ABC News. She was traveling with her cousin Woodard, along with friends Zindell Brown and Williams.
Burgess said she had not spoken to her daughter since Friday, when McGee called and said she was 15 minutes away from the doctor’s office.
“Her phone just started going to voice mail,” Burgess said.
López Obrador did not mention a medical procedure when he spoke of the kidnapping Monday.
“The information we have is that they crossed the border to buy medicines in Mexico,” the president told reporters. “There was a confrontation between groups and they were detained.”
What we know about Matamoros and the kidnapped Americans
The Americans came under fire shortly after they crossed the border, the FBI said in a statement Sunday. The Americans were traveling in a white minivan with North Carolina plates.
Officials do not believe the victims were targeted before the encounter. There was no evidence they were linked to organized crime in Mexico, U.S. officials said; none of the four have criminal records.
Matamoros, home to 580,000 people, is the second-largest city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, across from Texas’s southern tip. Tamaulipas is one of six Mexican states to which the State Department advises Americans against traveling, citing the risk of crime and kidnapping.
“Approximately one hour ago we confirmed that the four Americans were located,” Tamaulipas state governor Americo Villarreal said in a phone call during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s daily news conference. “Thirty-five minutes ago we got confirmation from the prosecutor’s office that of the four people, two were found dead, one wounded and one alive. Ambulances are rushing to the area to recover them and offer them medical care.”
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A Mexican official said the Americans were found in the village of Tecolote, about 15 miles from the border city of Matamoros, the site of the kidnapping Friday.
Officials did not immediately name the victims. The Americans have been identified by family members as three friends who were accompanying a fourth who planned to undergo a medical procedure there.
Latavia “Tay” McGee, her cousin Shaeed Woodard and friends Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams, traveling in a minivan with North Carolina plates, had reportedly just crossed over the border from Brownsville, Tex., to Matamoros when they were fired on and abducted by unidentified assailants.
The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for their return and the arrest of those responsible.
Video appears to show violent kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” Zalandria Brown told the Associated Press before the deaths were announced. She identified one of the kidnap victims as her younger brother Zindell Brown of Myrtle Beach, S.C.
One member of the group intended to undergo the cosmetic medical procedure known as a tummy tuck, Zalandria Brown said.
Video and photographs from the scene verified by The Washington Post show armed men wearing protective vests forcing a woman into the back of a white pickup and dragging three other people to the truck trailing what appears to be blood on the ground. A fifth person can be seen lying on the sidewalk, apparently injured. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico in a statement said “an innocent Mexican citizen” was killed in the confrontation.
Christina Hickson, the mother of 28-year-old Zindell Brown, told ABC affiliate WPDE in Myrtle Beach that she identified her son from footage of the kidnapping shared online.
“I was able to follow each one as they would be placed on the truck,” she said. “I knew immediately that was him.”
Zalandria Brown said “to see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”
Latavia McGee was traveling to Mexico from South Carolina for a medical procedure, her mother Barbara Burgess, 54, told ABC News. She was traveling with her cousin Woodard, along with friends Zindell Brown and Williams.
Burgess said she had not spoken to her daughter since Friday, when McGee called and said she was 15 minutes away from the doctor’s office.
“Her phone just started going to voice mail,” Burgess said.
López Obrador did not mention a medical procedure when he spoke of the kidnapping Monday.
“The information we have is that they crossed the border to buy medicines in Mexico,” the president told reporters. “There was a confrontation between groups and they were detained.”
What we know about Matamoros and the kidnapped Americans
The Americans came under fire shortly after they crossed the border, the FBI said in a statement Sunday. The Americans were traveling in a white minivan with North Carolina plates.
Officials do not believe the victims were targeted before the encounter. There was no evidence they were linked to organized crime in Mexico, U.S. officials said; none of the four have criminal records.
Matamoros, home to 580,000 people, is the second-largest city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, across from Texas’s southern tip. Tamaulipas is one of six Mexican states to which the State Department advises Americans against traveling, citing the risk of crime and kidnapping.
