A U.S. citizen was fatally shot Friday night while traveling through a volatile part of northwest Sonora, on the same highway where two Arizona women were killed in an August shooting and where a U.S. resident was killed in December.
Neither the U.S. State Department nor the Sonora Attorney General's Office would confirm the 30-year-old male victim's identity, nor his hometown.
Multiple Sonoran news outlets reported the victim lived in Tucson and was traveling from Nogales to Puerto Peñasco with his girlfriend and her mother.
The Sonora Attorney General's Office said the Oct. 18 shooting took place just before 8 p.m. near Altar, Sonora, at kilometer 74 of Federal Highway 2, between Altar and Caborca.
A vehicle pulled up alongside the victim's pickup truck and opened fire in a "direct attack" on the victim, the Sonora Attorney General's Office said in a press release.
Immediately before the shooting, an armed group had tried to stop the victim's vehicle at a checkpoint, a Sonora state official confirmed, speaking on background. The perpetrators opened fire after the victim's vehicle did not stop.
Failure to stop at an "illicit checkpoint" also preceded the December late-night killing of a U.S. resident and the wounding of two others, including a U.S. citizen, on the same highway, the Arizona Daily Star reported at the time.
In a third incident, on Aug. 23 at 10:30 a.m., two Arizona women ages 72 and 82 were found fatally shot in their overturned vehicle, on a different segment of Federal Highway 2, as they traveled from the Lukeville, Arizona, port of entry toward their hometown of Caborca. One of the victims was a U.S. citizen, and one was a lawful permanent resident, the Star reported.
Sonora law enforcement — including the state’s criminal investigative unit, AMIC; the Mexican Navy; and air support — quickly launched a search operation in the Altar-Caborca desert region to find the culprits in the Oct. 18 attack, but came under fire from criminal elements over the weekend, the AG office said in a Monday press release.
Mexican security forces were traveling on a dirt road "when a sand-colored Jeep-type pickup truck, noticing the presence of the security forces, accelerated its speed and the occupants began to shoot," the release said in Spanish.
Air support from an assisting Black Hawk helicopter helped locate the aggressors, the release said. Four shooters were "neutralized," the statement said, and authorities also seized five AK47 rifles, four tactical vests and ammunition.
"The operation continues, and an intense search is being maintained for more generators of violence who will have to answer for their actions," the release said.
Locals warn against traveling through Sonora at night, particularly in the region west of Highway 15 — which is considered a safe highway connecting Nogales, Sonora and Hermosillo — and east of Highway 8, which connects Sonoyta, Sonora, to Puerto Peñasco.
The U.S. State Department recommends only traveling to Puerto Peñasco using Highway 8, which is accessed through the Lukeville port.
The U.S. agency would not provide any information on the incident other than to confirm the victim was a U.S. citizen.
"We extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased," a spokesman said in a response to the Star's request for information. "Out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones during this difficult time, we have no further comment at this time."
