Yet to be identified gunmen kidnapped four American citizens who crossed over the boundary to Mexico to buy some medicine on Monday.
According to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the four Americans were going to buy some drugs, and “there was a confrontation between groups, and they were detained.”
However, the United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar in a statement said the Americans were abducted at gunpoint and an “innocent” Mexican citizen died in the attack. He said various U.S. justice agencies were working with their Mexican counterparts to recover the missing people.
It was reported that the Americans were shot at by the men shortly after they crossed the border on Friday through the city of Matamoros, in the Tamaulipas state, across from Brownsville, Texas, Special Agent Oliver Rich, who is in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio Division.
The Americans who were driving in a white van received heavy gunfire before they were taken into another vehicle and led away.
Tamaulipas’ chief prosecutor, Irving Barrios, confirmed that a Mexican woman lost her life in the attack, but he did not specify whether she was killed in the same gunfight where the kidnapping took place.
Authorities have not released the names of those allegedly kidnapped but Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning that her younger brother, Zindell Brown, was one of the four abducted victims.