The mother of one of the four Americans kidnapped while driving through Mexico for a tummy-tuck appointment has spoken out about her daughter's ordeal.
Two members of the group, identified as Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard, were killed along with a Mexican member of the public hit in the cross fire.
The two surviving Americans, Eric James Williams and Latavia "Tay" McGee, were rescued by authorities after three days being held by the gunmen.
The four had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, US, on Friday, travelling in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates when cartel gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the gang-war hotspot.
Ms McGee's mum Barbara Burgess spoke out about her daughter's kidnapping, telling CNN : "[She] said the others started running and they got shot at the same time - Shaheed and Zindell - they all got shot at the same time and she watched them die."
The bodies of Woodard, 33, and Brown will be repatriated to the US on Wednesday.
Ms Burgess said that when Woodward's mum died when he was 15, she became something of a surrogate mum.
She explained: "I would do anything for him" and added that Ms McGee "saw him as a brother".
She also told ABC 15 that her daughter "was crying because her brother got killed and she watched him die.
"She watched two of them die. They died in front of her."
According to the governor of the region Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal, during the kidnapping the Americans were moved about “to create confusion and avoid efforts to rescue them.”
Eventually the hostages were found in a cramped wooden hut along with the body of their friend with the second body found outside.
Mexican police arrested Jose Guadalupe N., 24, who was found guarding the scene.
The Americans had driven across the border to get Ms McGee to a tummy tuck appointment.
Their minivan crashed and was fired on shortly after they crossed into the border city of Matamoros on Friday as drug cartel factions tore through the streets, the region’s governor said.
A stray bullet also killed a Mexican woman about a block and a half away.
Video and photographs taken during and immediately after the incident show the minivan sitting beside another vehicle, with at least one bullet hole in the driver’s side window.
A witness said the two vehicles had collided. Almost immediately, several men with tactical vests and assault rifles arrived in another vehicle to surround the scene.
The gunmen walked one of the Americans into the bed of a white pickup, then dragged and loaded up the three others. Terrified civilian motorists sat silently in their cars, hoping not to draw attention.
Two of the victims appeared to be motionless.
