Pirates Murder 4 American Hostages
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Four Americans are dead, four days after pirates hijacked their yacht. It's the deadliest case of piracy yet and it ended with a knife fight between a Navy SEAL and one of the pirates.
Kai Jackson has more.
It appears a dispute among the pirates triggered gunfire that killed the four Americans.
Despite warnings about pirates, the two couples set out alone on a sail across the Indian Ocean. On Friday, a gang of 19 pirates boarded their 58-foot yacht and headed for Somalia. Four U.S. Navy ships shadowed the yacht and President Barack Obama gave the green light to use force if the Americans' lives were in danger.
"We understood that if they got to shore, it was gonna be a really bad situation," said a family member of one of the hostages.
FBI hostage negotiators tried to bargain with the pirates and even brought two aboard for face-to-face talks. But then, without warning, at 8 a.m. Tuesday local time, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the Quest by the pirates toward the Sterett. Immediately thereafter, gunfire also erupted inside the cabin of the Quest.
When Navy SEALS got to the Quest, they found two pirates already dead. The SEALS searched the yacht and found two more armed with knives. After a struggle, they were dead. Most of the rest surrendered. Inside the cockpit, they found all four Americans, murdered.
"My aunt was not dead when she, when Navy SEALS arrived on the ship. She had been shot. She was not dead at that time and they did try to save her but they were unsuccessful," said Nina Crossland, victim's niece.
Meg Rhian and her husband, Ray Albers, were on a cruise ship that was attacked by pirates. The captain outran the terrorists.
"The announcement was, `This is your captain. We've been approached by pirates. Get down on the floor and stay there,'" Rhian said. "The captain said, `They will not get on my ship. We're going to outrun them.' And that's what happened."
One of the couples lived on the boat. They had been sailing around the world since 2004, passing out Bibles.
