Greater than a month after 4 People have been attacked and kidnapped by a drug cartel in Mexico, the 2 survivors say they’re nonetheless recovering from the trauma of the terrifying ordeal and the killings of their pals.
“They didn’t deserve that. None of us deserved it. However we’re alive — we have now plenty of recovering to do,” LaTavia Washington McGee informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an unique interview Tuesday.
Washington McGee, Eric Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown have been kidnapped on March 3 as they have been driving to a medical appointment in Matamoros, Mexico. Woodard and Brown have been each killed.
The assault got here in broad daylight, with armed males ambushing the 4 pals not lengthy after they crossed the US-Mexico border. Investigators imagine the People have been possible mistaken for Haitian drug smugglers, a US official acquainted with the investigation beforehand informed CNN.
The group was driving after they heard a automotive horn behind them. Brown regarded again to see a gun and warned the others to not cease the automotive, Washington McGee recalled.
Then, the taking pictures began.
“Zindell and Shaeed, they jumped as much as run they usually have been gunned down,” Williams mentioned.
As somebody began to beat on the automotive window with a gun, Williams jumped out of the driving force’s facet. “That’s after I was shot on each legs,” Williams mentioned.
Washington McGee was compelled into the mattress of a pickup truck at gunpoint and the others have been carried onto it — a second captured on video and shared by authorities after the kidnapping.
An harmless Mexican bystander was killed throughout the encounter after being hit by a stray bullet virtually a block and a half from the place the People have been taken, officers mentioned.
‘He mentioned he beloved us and he was gone’
Williams and Washington McGee informed CNN Brown and Woodward have been each nonetheless alive when their limp our bodies have been dragged onto the truck mattress.
The 4 have been then pushed to a different spot, the place they have been interrogated.
“That’s the place Shaeed mentioned, ‘I like y’all, and I’m gone.’ And he died proper there,” Williams mentioned.
As Woodard lay dying behind the pickup truck, “I informed him I used to be sorry,” Washington McGee recalled.
“He mentioned he beloved us and he was gone. It was the very last thing he mentioned,” Williams mentioned, via tears.
‘Diablo masks’ and weapons
Washington McGee and Williams mentioned they have been taken to a number of totally different areas over the times they spent in captivity, getting blindfolded as they have been moved between areas.
At one level, the group was taken to a home. Exterior, they noticed armed folks in purple, plastic “Diablo” masks who have been “pointing the weapons to our head, telling us to not search for,” Williams mentioned.
They have been additionally taken to a clinic, the place Williams described his leg being positioned on a chunk of wooden and stitched up.
“No ache drugs or nothing. They simply stitched it up,” Williams mentioned, including that nobody checked to see if a bullet was nonetheless inside.
Washington McGee mentioned she was put in a room with Brown, who was badly wounded and dying.
“He was preventing for his life they usually didn’t do nothing,” she mentioned. “I talked to him the entire time … I simply informed him sorry as a result of I requested him to come back with me.”
“He was like, ‘It’s okay. I’m your brother. I’m presupposed to be there for you. I like you,'” Washington McGee recalled.
The abductors informed them they'd take Brown to a hospital, Washington McGee mentioned, however “they got here again possibly an hour later and he was lifeless.”
At one level, somebody confirmed Washington McGee the video of their kidnapping. She noticed herself being compelled into the again of the truck.
“I simply began crying. I’m like, I’m by no means going dwelling” she mentioned.
Then, there was hope.
Washington McGee and Williams have been woken up in a darkish room to see a person standing over them with a lightweight.
“He was like, ‘There’s nothing that we are able to do to carry your two brothers again. However we’re sorry. Anyone made the mistaken name. They was excessive and drunk,'” Washington McGee recalled the person saying.
‘They have been all the time a step forward’
At one level, Washington McGee and Williams have been blindfolded and brought to a truck. Williams mentioned his pals’ our bodies have been then positioned on prime of him to maintain him hidden.
The People have been pushed round all night time as they heard the sound of weapons being cocked, Washington McGee mentioned.
“They'd police scanners and all varieties of stuff of their vans. They knew what was happening. They have been all the time a step forward. So I used to be like, they’re by no means gonna discover us like this,” McGee recalled.
However ultimately, they have been dropped off at a wood shack, the place Washington McGee and Williams have been rescued on March 7. The survivors and the our bodies of their pals have been introduced again to the US.
Washington McGee mentioned she tried to flee twice throughout the ordeal, “for my brothers to have the right burial and for us to return dwelling to our household and children.”
An apology letter was later issued by the Gulf Cartel, which is believed to be accountable for the kidnappings, and the group handed over 5 of its members to native authorities, based on pictures circulating on-line and a model of the letter obtained by CNN from an official acquainted with the continuing investigation. CNN can't verify the authenticity of the pictures and has requested Mexican and US authorities for remark.
Although investigators imagine the letter to be genuine, Mexican and US regulation enforcement officers collaborating within the investigation strongly doubt the sincerity of the group’s apology, the official who shared the letter with CNN mentioned.
A minimum of six folks have been arrested in Mexico up to now, based on Mexican officers.
The-CNN-Wire
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