'We shouldn’t go down!' Zindell Brown's CHILLING warning before Mexican cartel killed him revealed by family
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised
MATAMOROS, MEXICO: In a nerve-wracking tragedy, four US citizens were assaulted and kidnapped at gunpoint by a Mexican cartel on Friday, March 3. Among one of the two Americans murdered had allegedly expressed his reluctance about the ill-fated trip to Mexico saying, “We shouldn’t go down,” according to his sister.
Slain Zindell Brown had alarmingly warned about the perils of traveling in the crime-ridden city of Matamoros to his friends, Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams, and Shaeed Woodard. The quartet had traveled to the nation for medical treatment when they were allegedly caught in the crossfire between two opposing cartel groups. Apparently, a Mexican cartel reportedly mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers.
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Crime-ridden city of Matamoros
“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,’” said his sister Zalandria Brown. One of the victims Latavia, a mother of six and a frequent visitor to the nation was traveling with her friends to undergo a cosmetic procedure. They were traveling from South Carolina to the city of Matamoros in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, in a white minivan when the mishap occurred. Following the aftermath, blood-curling footage posted on social media showed men with assault rifles and body armor loading the four Americans in the bed of a white pickup truck in the crime-ridden city of Matamoros.
(CNN Video Screenshot)
Zindell's sister who lives in Florence, SC, said his death has been “like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from.” She added, “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable,” according to New York Post. In the video, one of the men appeared to be alive as he could be seen lifting his head above the pavement before being dragged into the vehicle. The other three victims appeared to be either dead or severely wounded.
The aftermath of the tragedy
Lativa's aunt, Mary McFadden, said when the family hadn't heard from the group they began checking online and came across a video showing her niece being kidnapped. “We recognized her and her blond hair,” McFadden told CNN, reported the source. The native Americans were found in a wooden shack on Tuesday, guarded by a man Jose Guadalupe, who was later arrested said the state’s chief prosecutor, Irving Barrios.
Zindell and Shaeed were reported dead and were taken for forensic work at the Matamoros morgue, Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal said. Eric suffered a gunshot wound to his leg and the mother of six Latavia was not physically injured. The pair were escorted by Mexican military Humvees and national guard trucks in a convoy of vehicles to Brownsville, Texas.