Update: Identity Revealed of Two U.S. Victims Killed in Mexico After 4 Were Abducted

Update 03/08/2023 11:20am:

The identity of the two Americans killed after a group of four people was intercepted and abducted by cartel members in Mexico were revealed to be Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown. 

Relatives revealed that Woodard and Brown traveled from South Carolina to Mexico with Latavia "Tay" McGee and Eric James Williams so that McGee could get a tummy tuck procedure. On Friday (March 3), the group crossed the border into the town of Matamoros, where they were caught in an incident with two rival cartels. 

Surveillance footage caught the moment the group was forced into the back of a pick-up truck at gunpoint. It is believed that the group was mistaken for Haitian smugglers they were expecting in the area. 

Authorities began searching for the group, which they found in a shack in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote. McGee was found without physical injuries, while Williams suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg. The two were rushed to Brownsville, Texas on Tuesday (March 7) in a convoy of Mexican military Humvees and national guard trucks. It was revealed that local authorities in Mexico will examine the bodies of Woodard and Brown before they are returned to the US. 

Source: NY Post 

Original 03/07/2023 3:53am:

Video shows a group of friends from South Carolina being shot at and abducted in Mexico. 

Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams traveled to Mexico on a group trip for cosmetic medical procedures were taken on Friday and haven't been heard from since. 

“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” said Brown’s sister Zalandria Brown. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”

The group had just crossed the border from Texas in the notoriously dangerous city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas. There, the group's white van came under fire and a gunman abducted the travelers. Witnesses say they don't know whether two of the victims were wounded or dead after the shooting. 

Source: Nypost.com