Two of the four U.S. citizens who were kidnapped by gunmen in Mexico on Friday (March 3) have been found dead, according to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The other two Americans were found alive, with at least one of them being injured, the Mexican President said on Monday (March 7), per ABC News.
Latavia “Tay” McGee and Shaeed Woodard, who are cousins, along with Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams were previously identified as the four Americans abducted while traveling to the Mexican border city of Matamoros.
According to the San Antonio division of the FBI, the four drove into Matamoros, a city largely controlled by the Gulf drug cartel, on Friday in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. Unidentified gunmen opened fire against the group before they were “placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said.
The four Americans were abducted "after getting caught in the middle of a confrontation between groups," according to Mexican officials per ABC News.
Unverified video circulating on social media shows armed men loading four people into the back of a white pickup truck. One of the four appears to be moving and sitting upright, while the other three appear to be limp as they are dragged into the bed of the vehicle.
Zindell Brown's sister, Zalandria Brown, said her brother was accompanying one of four Americans who was planning to have tummy tuck surgery in Mexico.
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” she said.
Latavia “Tay” McGee's mother, Barbara Burgess, confirmed to ABC News that her daughter traveled from South Carolina to Mexico for a cosmetic medical procedure.
An investigation into the incident by the FBI, federal partners, and Mexican law enforcement agencies remains ongoing.
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