(WSPA) – The mayor of Lake City, in Florence County, said the four Americans attacked in Mexico last week were all Lake City natives.
The four South Carolinians were kidnapped in northern Mexico on Friday, March 3. Authorities say two of the bodies were discovered, one victim has been injured and the other was unharmed.
According to authorities, the two survivors are now back in the U.S.
Investigators believed they were caught in the crossfire of rival cartels in northern Mexico.
“Attacks on U.S. citizens are unacceptable, no matter where or under what circumstances they happen. We will continue to work closely with the Mexican government to ensure justice is done in this case,” said the White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.
U.S. officials identified the victims as Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams. Woodard and Brown were the ones killed in the attack.
The FBI said after the group drove a white minivan, with North Carolina plates, from Brownsville, Texas across the border, gunmen opened fire.
A family member of one of the victims’ said the group traveled together from South Carolina to Matamoros, where one of them was planning to undergo cosmetic surgery.
According to medicaldepartures.com, hundreds of thousands of Americans head to Mexico for medical treatments each year.
” I didn’t hear from him after Friday. Friday morning, he text me and I text him back immediately and he didn’t respond, he didn’t respond to our son either so I’m gonna assume that’s when they were ambushed,” said Michelle Williams, the wife of Eric Williams.
Michelle Williams said she didn’t know her husband was traveling to Mexico. All she said she knew was that he was going somewhere to help friends.
“I was not aware that that was my husband until the FBI came on Friday, on Sunday morning, ’cause I had called his mom right before they came to see if she had heard from him,” said Williams.
Williams was shot in the leg and is now recovering in a Texas hospital.
“The two survivors have been repatriated back to the United States, that occurred with the assistance of our Mexican partners, with the assistance of our officials in Mexico,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “We are in the process of working to repatriate the remains of the two Americans that were killed in this incident.”
Williams’s wife comments about the emotions she is feeling after the attack.
“I’m happy and thankful that he’s home but I’m also heartbroken that the other two families can’t say the same,” she said.
According to Mexico’s President, one person has been detained in connection to this attack.
White House officials said they are following the situation and coordinating with Mexican authorities.
