07 March 2023 , 23:54
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Mexican cartel members are believed to have mistaken the four Americans who were kidnapped for Haitian drug smugglers, investigators have said.
The group had driven to Mexico for a medical procedure, but they were fired upon by unidentified gunmen, and then taken from the scene.
Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were found dead while Latavia Washington McGee and Eric Williams survived and returned to the US after being taken away from the scene in Red Cross ambulances.
Ms McGee was uninjured but Mr Williams had a gunshot wound to his leg, local media reported. They were both taken to a hospital in Brownsville, Texas.
Mexican media reported that the main line of the investigation indicates that confusion led the victims to the members of organized crime in their transit through the city.
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The two survivors were taken to a hospital in Texas in Red Cross ambulances (AP)The Tamaulipas prosecutor, Irving Barrios Mojica, said that the aggression was likely not as part of a direct attack, according to Telediario.
An unnamed US official also told CNN that the Americans were targeted by a Mexican cartel that likely mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers.
Mexican authorities found a 24-year-old suspect, supposedly a member of a drug cartel involved in the kidnapping, watching over the victims. The young man, identified as Jose 'N', is being held in custody.
In a press conference today, Mexican authorities said that an innocent woman who was standing by was also killed by a stray bullet in the incident.
The Mexican woman, who was not identified, was hit by a stray bullet almost a block and a half away from where the Americans were taken, the governor of Tamaulipas said.
The U.S. citizens were found in a shack in the rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote on the way to the Gulf coast known as “Bagdad Beach,” according to Tamaulipas state chief prosecutor Irving Barrios.
The victims, two dead, one injured with a gunshot wound, and one unharmed, have been recovered (AP)Shortly after entering Mexico Friday, the four were caught amid fighting between rival cartel groups in the city. Barrios said the hypothesis is “that it was confusion, not a direct attack.”
Video and photographs taken during and immediately after the abduction show the Americans’ white minivan sitting beside another vehicle, with at least one bullet hole in the driver's side window.
A witness said the two vehicles had collided. Almost immediately, several men in tactical vests and toting assault rifles arrived in another vehicle to surround the scene.
The gunmen walked one of the Americans into the bed of a white pickup, then dragged and loaded the three others.
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Terrified civilian motorists sat silently in their cars, hoping not to draw their attention. Two of the victims appeared to be motionless.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, said “The cartels are responsible for the deaths of Americans.” “The DEA and the FBI are doing everything possible to dismantle and disrupt and ultimately prosecute the leaders of the cartels and the entire networks that they depend on.”
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. is working with Mexican officials to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the killings.
The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the abductors.
Robert Williams said in a telephone interview that he and his brother, 38-year-old Eric Williams, are from South Carolina but now live in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina.
Williams described his brother as “easygoing” and “fun-spirited.”
He didn’t know his brother was traveling to Mexico until after the abduction hit the news. But from looking at his brother’s Facebook posts, he thinks his brother did not consider the trip dangerous.
“He thought it would be fun,” Williams said. He hadn’t heard anything about his brother’s whereabouts, he said.
Told that his brother was among the survivors Tuesday, Robert Williams said that when they meet, “I’ll just tell him how happy I am to see him, and how glad I am that he made it through, and that I love him.”