WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — One of the two survivors of a kidnapping in Mexico lives in the Triad, according to their family.
The brother of 38-year-old Eric Williams told AP News he lives in the Winston-Salem area.
Officials said Williams and three others, Latavia McGee, Shaeed Woodard, and Zindell Brown, who are all from South Carolina, traveled to Matamoros, Mexico so McGee could have a medical procedure.
A video shows a gunman kidnapping them as they were caught in a shootout between cartel gangs. Gang members could be seen forcing McGee into the back of a pickup truck, along with others who appeared hurt.
Mexican officials confirmed that Woodard and Brown were killed. Williams and McGee were rescued from a wooden shack and took them to a hospital across the border in Brownsville, Texas Tuesday.
Williams, a husband, and father, is recovering from a gunshot to his leg.
His wife spoke to CBS News and said she talked with him Tuesday.
"He's just glad to be alive," she said. "It's sad because two other people lost their lives, but he's just glad to be alive."
Williams' wife said she has tried to ignore images of her husband being forced onto a truckbed circulating online.
"I always look at it like if it was one of my family members. I wouldn't want to see anything like that. Once I found out this was him, I didn't want the memory. I didn't want that to be the last memory I've seen of my husband," she said.
Investigators believe the Gulf Cartel is to blame. Police in Mexico said they've arrested one person so far.
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