The South Carolina woman who survived a harrowing kidnapping by a Mexican drug cartel is now charged with bringing a gun to a kids’ fight, according to news reports.
Latavia Washington McGee, 34, one of four Americans seized by narcotraffickers in March and one of only two to survive the ordeal, was arrested Friday for allegedly taking her daughter to fight another child and waving around “a small black pistol” she pulled from her purse, WMBF-TV News said in a report.
McGee was arrested on a warrant stemming from the Feb. 17 incident — before the Mexican kidnappings, the outlet said.
Police said McGee took her daughter to an apartment complex on Spivey Street to fight another girl but was yanked away from the scene by a relative, according to the report.
But McGee allegedly returned with her mother and a scuffle broke out between the kids, the two older women and relatives of the other child — when McGee allegedly pulled the weapon from her bag and “started waiving it around.”
Cops later issued the warrant for McGee on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a child.
“This charge was in no way related to the torture and death that [McGee] went through,” her lawyer, Mark Simmons, told the Daily Mail. “We believe that the police department was doing its job. We are grateful for the hard work the police department does, but we do look forward to the charge being dismissed.”
McGee and three pals — Eric James Williams, Shaheed Woodward and Zindell Brown — traveled to Mexico for McGee to have a cosmetic surgery procedure when they stumbled into a cartel turf war.
The group, later dubbed “the tummy tuck four” by some media outlets, was seen on video being forced into a truck in what authorities believed was a case of mistaken identity. Woodward and Brown were later killed and Williams was wounded in the leg before they were found.
McGee was left traumatized but was not physically injured, authorities said.