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4 American Friends Were Kidnapped in Mexico and 2 Were Killed: Here’s What We Know About Them

Two of the friends, kidnapped at gunpoint on Friday in a Mexican city near the American border, are recovering in a Texas hospital

During a trip to Mexico, four close friends who grew up together in South Carolina were fired upon by gunmen and kidnapped in a Mexican city just across the Texas border on Friday.

Two were killed while the two survivors, who included a mother of six who reportedly hoped to get a cosmetic medical procedure in the country, are recovering in a Texas hospital. The attack took place in the city of Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas, which is under a “Do Not Travel To” advisory on the U.S. Department of State‘s website due to crime and kidnapping.

Mexican authorities have arrested one person in connection with the case, a 24-year-old man identified only as “Jose N,” who was allegedly guarding the victims at a “wooden house” in the Lagunona area, outside of Matamoros.

Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said in a tweet that the kidnapping appeared to be a case of mistaken identity, and that the group of Americans may have been confused with a rival Haitian gang.

Here’s what to know about the victims of the harrowing attack:

Shaeed Woodard

Woodard, 33, who worked at a hotel in Myrtle Beach, S.C., was a devoted uncle to many nephews and nieces.

Included among his nieces is the daughter of Army veteran Sonya Singletary. Singletary tells PEOPLE, “Shaeed was one of the good guys: gentle, humble, and sweet. He was willing to help anybody and give you the shirt off his back; always smiling and positive.”

Barbara Burgess, whose daughter Latavia Washington McGee survived the attack, helped raise Shaeed, her nephew, after his mother passed away when he was 15, she told CNN.

“Latavia considered him a brother,” she told the network. “I miss him, I love him, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”

Zindell Brown

Brown, who lived in Myrtle Beach, was bonded “like glue” to his friends with whom he traveled to Mexico, his sister, Zalandria Brown, told CNN.

Zalandria Brown said she was extremely close to her brother as well: “Zindell is like my shadow, he’s like my son, he’s like my hip bone,” she told CNN. “We’re just tight like that.”

Zindell knew the trip could be dangerous. “Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,'” Zalandria Brown told The Associated Press. She added: “This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from.”

Latavia Washington McGee

Washington McGee, a 35-year-old mother of six from Myrtle Beach, went to Mexico for a medical procedure, her second time in two to three years traveling to the country for that reason, her mother told CNN. A close friend told CNN the trip was for cosmetic surgery.

Burgess spoke to her daughter Tuesday as she recovered in a Texas hospital.

“She was crying. I asked her how she was doing. She doing okay,” Burgess told ABC News affiliate WPDE.

“She was crying because her brother [cousin Shaeed Woodard] got killed and she watched him die,” Burgess told the network. “She watched two of them die. They died in front of her.”

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday morning, Burgess recalled what her daughter said about the kidnapping.

“They were driving through and a van came up and hit them, and that’s when they started shooting at the car, shooting inside the van,” Burgess told CNN. “She said the others tried to run and they got shot at the same time. They all got shot at the same time.”

Burgess expects her daughter to come home Wednesday, she told CNN.

Eric Williams

Williams, 38, was shot three times in his legs, his wife Michele Williams told CNN.

Williams’ cousin Jerry Wallace, told The New York Post on Wednesday that he’s now out of surgery and is “talking strong and everything. He [is] doing better than what he was.”

He added that Eric and Michele, who live in Winston-Salem, N.C., have a child together.

“He’s just upset about his friend getting killed right in front of him — which anybody else would be with the stuff he went through,” Wallace told the Post.

Robert Williams, Eric’s brother, told WBTW that Eric is “easygoing” and “fun-spirited”

“I look forward to seeing him again,” Robert told The Associated Press, “and actually being able to talk to him.”