4 kidnapped Americans entered Mexico to buy medicine

The four Americans kidnapped in Mexico had crossed over the border to get medicine, the Mexican president revealed Monday, as new details emerged about the moment they were taken.

The US citizens came from Texas before they got caught in the crossfire and were abducted, officials said. At least one Mexican citizen was killed in the broad daylight shooting.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday the four were going to purchase medicine but offered few details.

“There was a confrontation between groups, and they were detained,” he said, adding Mexico’s public safety ministry was working with the FBI to find the missing Americans.

“I believe it will be resolved, I hope so,” Obrador said during a regular news conference.

The four were riding in a white minivan with North Carolina license before getting shot on Friday shortly after they entered the dangerous city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas from Brownsville, Texas, the FBI San Antonio Division office said Sunday.

An “innocent” Mexican citizen died in the attack, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said Monday.

A witness to the attack and kidnapping told The Associated Press she saw the white minivan get hit by another vehicle before shots rang out. Another SUV arrived and several gunmen emerged, said the woman, who did not want to give her name.

“All of a sudden they [the gunmen] were in front of us,” she said. “I entered a state of shock, nobody honked their horn, nobody moved. Everybody must have been thinking the same thing, ‘if we move they will see us, or they might shoot us.’”

The kidnapped woman, who was able to walk, was forced into the back of the truck and another person was carried by the suspects, but could still move his head, she said.

“The other two they dragged across the pavement, we don’t know if they were alive or dead,” she said.

Video of the purported shooting and kidnapping matches up with that witness account, showing men wearing bulletproof vests dragging a person across the ground and pushing a woman into the flatbed of a white pickup truck.

The startling footage also shows the suspects grab two men who appear to be wounded or dead and throw their bodies in the same flatbed.

The identities of the four kidnapped victims were not revealed as of Monday afternoon, but a Mexican official told Reuters that three men and one woman were taken.

Photo of the scene reviewed by the AP show white minivan’s driver side window shot out and all the doors open. Multiple people were seeing lying in the street besides it surrounded by armed men.

President Biden was told about the ongoing situation, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday, but declined to answer other questions.

“Our thoughts are with the families of these individuals and we stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” she said. “We will continue to coordinate with Mexico and push them to bring those responsible to justice.”

Tamaulipas state police said people were killed and wounded Friday, but did not pinpoint how many. Authorities also said on social media that neither law enforcement nor the military were involved in “two armed incidents between unidentified civilians.”

The Mexican city deals with warring factions of drug cartels, and the Americans’ kidnapping there followed gun battles Friday that were so fierce, the US Consulate issued an alert about the danger.

The border city commonly sees Americans cross over to visit family, attend medical appointments or go shopping.

The FBI is offering a whopping $50,000 reward for the return of the captives and arrest of those alleged kidnappers.

With Post wires