Two of the Americans who were kidnapped at gunpoint in a Mexican border city on Friday have returned to the US and are being treated at a hospital, while the remains of the two Americans who were killed are expected to be brought back to the US Thursday.
LaTavia Washington McGee, one of the surviving Americans, is expected to come home Wednesday, her mother, Barbara McLeod Burgess, said in an interview with “CNN This Morning.” Burgess also described her understanding of what happened in the harrowing attack.
“They were driving through and a van came up and hit them, and that’s when they started shooting at the car, shooting inside the van,” Burgess said. “She said the others tried to run and they got shot at the same time. They all got shot at the same time. And she watched them die.”
The other survivor, Eric Williams, was shot in the legs three times and was brought to a hospital in Texas to undergo surgery, his wife, Michele Williams, told CNN. “I was just glad to hear his voice,” she said.
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Meanwhile, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown were found dead, a US official familiar with the ongoing investigation told CNN.
Their remains are expected to be repatriated to the US Thursday, according to a source from the Mexico Attorney General’s office.
That’s after a Mexican medical examiner completed a forensic examination to determine their causes of death. Once the bodies are in the US, a second autopsy will eventually be conducted, according to a US official familiar with the investigation.
The autopsies concluded Wednesday morning, an official from the Tamaulipas Prosecutor’s Office told CNN.
Their impending return home comes a day after the four Americans were found in a “wooden house” in or near the Mexican border city of Matamoros, where they had been kidnapped on Friday, Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal announced.
The tight-knit group of friends had driven to Mexico from South Carolina so Washington McGee — a mother of six — could undergo a medical procedure in Matamoros, two family members told CNN.
But after they crossed the border, their car was intercepted by gunmen who fired on the Americans, loaded them into a vehicle and took them from the scene, according to the FBI. An innocent Mexican bystander was fatally struck by a stray bullet almost a block and a half from where the Americans were …read more
Source:: The Mercury News