The wife of one of two survivors of a deadly Mexico shooting and kidnapping says she’s glad her husband is alive but “heartbroken for the other two families who can’t say the same.”
Eric Williams and LaTavia Washington McGee survived the trip to Mexico that killed two other people, according to officials and family members.
The group of four Americans — all childhood friends — came under attack in Mexico on Friday as they were in the country for a medical procedure for one of them, according to authorities and family.
Two were found dead, and Williams and McGee were returned Tuesday to the United States, Mexican officials said.
“All of them have known each other all their lives,” Williams’ wife, Michelle Williams, said. “They’re childhood friends.”
The two who died have been identified by family members as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown.
The group’s minivan was fired upon in Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas, which across the U.S.-Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas, and armed men took them in a vehicle, the FBI has said.
A law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter has said that cartel gunman may have targeted them in a case of mistaken identity.
Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said Tuesday that “when it comes to this interaction it seems it was confusion,” but an investigation is ongoing.
The Americans are from South Carolina and were driving to Mexico so they could all share in the driving duties, relatives said. McGee’s cousin, Aliyah McCleod, said they were going to Mexico so one of them could get a medical procedure.
More coverage of deadly Mexico abduction
The U.S. State Department warns Americans not to travel to Tamaulipas due to organized crime and kidnapping.
Michelle Williams said she first learned something was wrong Sunday.
“I didn’t know anything until Sunday morning when the FBI came,” she said. “Everything just seemed so surreal to me. At first, I thought it was like a scam.”
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