The wife of a man who survived a kidnapping at gunpoint in Mexico has revealed she was unaware her husband was traveling south of the border.
Eric Williams was found alive Tuesday with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to his legs, five days after he and his friends were approached by a Mexican cartel who led the Americans into a pickup truck at gunpoint.
Mexican and American authorities have been searching for days for the four friends who traveled to a dangerous part of the country to assist Latavia ‘Tay’ McGee with a planned tummy tuck.
Dramatic footage showed her barefoot and covered in dirt as she and Williams were rescued from a dingy hideout on Tuesday, but McGee’s cousins Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown did not survive.
Williams is now being treated for his wounds at a hospital in a Texas border town, as his wife Michelle says she wasn’t even aware he was traveling to the country.
Eric Williams was found alive Tuesday with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to his legs, five days after he and his friends were approached by a Mexican cartel
He was one of three others who traveled to Mexico to assist friend Latavia “Tay” McGee (pictured) with a planned tummy tuck
McGee was unharmed but Williams had been shot in the left leg – the injury was not life threatening
“I didn’t know he was going to Mexico,” she told WBTW. “All I knew was that he was going somewhere to help two friends.”
She said she hadn’t heard from him since Friday, explaining how he texted her that morning “and I texted him back straight away.
“He didn’t answer,” revealed Michelle. “He didn’t answer our son either, so I assume that’s where they were mugged.”
She added, “I very much doubt they thought this could have happened to them.”
A video posted to social media that day showed men with assault rifles and tan body armor loading the four people into the back of a white pickup truck in broad daylight.
A woman now believed to be McGee was being led into the pickup truck at gunpoint as another cartel member dragged a man across the sidewalk.
Two other male victims were then thrown into the vehicle.
It is not clear from the video if they were dead or just wounded at the time.
But Williams said she doesn’t usually watch these kinds of videos, “so I didn’t know it was my husband until the FBI came on Sunday night.”
“It was just so surreal,” she said of the experience. “I called the local police here and they confirmed it.”
McGee sits on the ground after the vehicle she and three other US citizens were traveling in was shot at by hijackers shortly after they drove into the Mexican border town of Matamoros
A gunman acted as a lookout for his cohorts shortly after they attacked and hijacked a minivan with four American occupants in the northeastern Mexican border town of Matamoros on Friday
She also noted that she was finally able to speak to her husband again on Tuesday morning when he was taken to the hospital.
During the phone call, he said he was shot twice in one leg and once in the other. Nevertheless, he should be able to walk.
Williams said she is now “happy and grateful” that her husband is doing well as he is being treated for his wounds at Brownsville Valley Regional Hospital in Texas, “but I’m also heartbroken that the other two families can’t say the same .”
McGee’s mother, Barbara Burgess, also told ABC 15 Tuesday night that she spoke to her daughter, who is in shock but unharmed.
‘She lives. I was talking with her. The nurse at the hospital called and let me speak to her,” Burgess said.
‘She cried. I asked her how she was doing. She is fine.
“She cried because her brother was killed and she watched him die. She watched two of them die. They died before her eyes.”
Burgess also thanked the well-wishers for their support.
“I appreciated your prayers. I thank you for your prayers because that is what I needed.
“Prayer will change things. It works out. And pray you believe in it and it will work. It did it for me. Because I prayed for my daughter.
‘And I know she came home. I knew it.
“I didn’t know when or what time. But I knew she would come.”
Lativa ‘Tay’ McGee was found unharmed after she, her cousin and two friends were abducted. The mother-of-five was spotted shoeless after surviving the tragic incident alongside boyfriend Eric Williams, who was shot in the left leg
Mexican officials said Mcgee’s cousin Shaeed Woodard and his friend Zindell Brown were killed. Their bodies were found in hiding along with the two survivors
McGee (pictured) was seen in the back of an ambulance before being transported to Texas following the brutal kidnapping that officials believe was a case of “misidentity”.
McGee was seen wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as Williams – who was shot in the left leg but also survived the ordeal – was treated in the back of the emergency vehicle
Images of McGee emerging from captivity were taken at a hideout in the rural town of El Tecolote, six and a half miles from Matamoros, where the group was found.
At least one person was arrested in connection with the incident, and the surviving Americans were taken to the border near Brownsville, Texas, in a convoy of Mexican ambulances and SUVs on Tuesday.
They were then handed over to US Consulate officials.
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal Anaya, who broke the news of the two surviving Americans at a separate press conference in the morning, confirmed the identity of the arrested person.
24-year-old Jose ‘N’ was arrested. He was in charge of monitoring the victims,” he said, noting that the victims “were found in a house near a place called La Lagunona in the town of El Tecolote in Matamoros.
“During the three days following the crime, the four people were taken to various locations, including a clinic, to create confusion and avoid rescue work,” he said.
Officials in Mexico would not confirm whether the person arrested in connection with the kidnapping is linked to the “Gulf Cartel” criminal organization, which is known to operate in the region.
Jose ‘N’, 24, was arrested in connection with the incident. According to Mexican officials, he was responsible for monitoring the victims
Mexican officials said the group arrived in Matamoros at 9:45 a.m. and was caught up in the horrific ambush at 11:45 a.m. hours after arriving in the city.
Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios said information related to the kidnapping surfaced online and that videos and pictures shared by people helped with the rescue.
At the time, authorities didn’t know the victims were Americans, he added.
After officials identified US license plates on the minivan the group traveled in, Mexican authorities reached out to their US counterparts.
Mexican authorities said they were able to scan public surveillance cameras in the area to “determine the number of cartel vehicles involved in the attack.”
He said they searched medical facilities in Matamoros hoping to find the kidnapping victims sooner, but to no avail.
Secretary General of Defence. Louis Sandoval was asked about kidnappings on both sides of the border, particularly in the US, where the victims are then taken to Mexico for ransom.
“Tamaulipas was a state where violence and the presence of groups were important,” he said.
The group was found in a hidden house (pictured) in the rural town of El Tecolote, six and a half miles from Matamoros
Forensic technicians were seen at the location where authorities in Matamoros found the bodies of two of four Americans kidnapped by gunmen
Military personnel guarded the scene where authorities found the bodies
“It should be noted that during the current government, a security strategy has been established and very specific targets for Tamaulipas, for the border, have been set to protect the border.
“The security strategy implemented has given very good results, I don’t have any statistics here right now, but the number of premeditated homicides in Tamaulipas has decreased thanks to this strategy.
“The involvement of the army, the strategy of the air force was important.”
Governor Américo Villarreal said close attention was paid to the incident and medical attention was given to the surviving victims, while the Mexican president vowed those responsible would be “punished”.
“Those responsible will be found, they will be punished, as happened with the murder of women and children from the LeBarón, Miller, Langford family in Bavispe. Everyone involved was arrested,” said President López Obrador.
The Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office said the four American citizens were found four days after they disappeared around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, two are dead. Investigative and intelligence work continues to apprehend those responsible. Details will be announced later,” he said Tuesday morning.
“Of the four, two have died, one injured and the other alive.
“Ambulances and the rest of the security personnel are on their way to provide appropriate assistance [their] transfer and [any] medical support that can be [given]’ he added at the time.
McGee was joined by her cousin Shaeed Woodard (pictured)
FBI units escort two Brownsville Fire Department ambulances carrying the two surviving US citizens abducted March 3 through the Veterans International Bridge in Los Tomates
Mexico’s Milenio newspaper quotes police officials as saying they are investigating whether the group was kidnapped by members of the “Gulf Cartel,” a notoriously violent gang led by a feared leader named La Kena.
The four had traveled from Lake City, South Carolina, to the border town of Matamoros to have McGee’s discounted tummy tuck, a family member of the victims said.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr said US authorities should treat the gangs the same as ISIS when negotiating the Americans’ release.
“They are terrorists,” he said during an appearance on Fox News last night.
“The Mexican government is being held hostage by tens of thousands of paramilitary members of terrorist organizations that effectively control Mexico.”
And as spring breakers pack their bikinis and sunglasses to hit the beach in Mexico, the US government has urged citizens to avoid cartel hotspots amid a surge in violence.
“At this stage, it’s pretty close to a failed narco-state,” he said.
“They can use force and oceans of money to corrupt the government. The government has no will and no ability to take action against the cartels.’
Republican Representatives Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Michael Waltz of Florida recently introduced legislation that would give Biden “the authority to use the US military against these cartels in Mexico.”
In response, Ricardo Monreal tweeted the following yesterday: “My response to Texas representative @DanCrenshawTX is direct and clear: I reject any foreign interference in the internal affairs of Mexico and also the claim to apply the laws of the United States in our country. It’s called “sovereignty”. Even if Crenshaw doesn’t understand it.”
Le Kena is the leader of the Gulf Cartel and is also known as Ciclon 19. His real name is Alberto García Vilano.
Mexican authorities have been hunting him for months and are offering a 2.5 million pesos reward for any information that could lead to his arrest.
Pictures from the moment they were captured have been circulating online, showing the group behind a vehicle
Zalandria Brown, of Florence, South Carolina, said Monday she contacted the FBI and local officials after learning her younger brother, Zindell, was one of the four victims.
“It’s like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” she said in a phone interview with the Associated Press.
La Kena or Ciclon 19, leader of the Gulf Cartel
“To see a family member being thrown into the back of a truck and being dragged along is just incredible.”
Zalandria said her brother lives in Myrtle Beach and two friends have accompanied McGee and the group is very tight – she made the trip in part to split driving duties.
Aware of the dangers in Mexico, Zalandria noted that her brother – who did not survive – had even expressed some concerns before the trip.
“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go under,'” Brown said.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a news conference Monday that the Biden administration “closely followed the assault and kidnapping of four U.S. citizens.”
“These types of attacks are unacceptable,” she said, adding that US law enforcement is in contact with Mexican authorities, as are the Departments of Foreign and Homeland Security.
Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal Anaya confirmed the condition of four kidnapped Americans in a phone call during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s press conference on Tuesday. Two dead, two alive – one wounded
Mexican authorities are here investigating the white SUV that McGee and her friends drove into the country
A map highlighting the six of 32 Mexican states that the U.S. State Department currently has listed under its strictest travel-prohibited category due to local cartels that could rob and/or kidnap American tourists
The FBI and Mexican law enforcement are investigating, with the bureau soliciting information from the public leading to arrests.
The State Department has issued a “do not travel” warning for the state of Tamaulipas due to “crime and kidnapping.”
Organized crime activities, including shootings, armed robberies and kidnappings, were widespread along the border and in Ciudad Victoria.
“Criminal groups are targeting public and private passenger buses and private cars that travel through Tamaulipas, often picking up passengers and demanding ransom payments,” the alert said.