A Tucson-area family is mourning the violent death of 31-year-old son, husband, brother and uncle Nick Quets, a veteran described as “the light in our lives” by his father.
Quets was fatally shot on a Sonora highway last weekend.
“He always wanted to serve his country. It was a vision of his,” said his father, Doug Quets, a 20-year Army veteran, speaking Friday at his and his wife Patricia’s home in Vail. “He lived that part of his dream as a U.S. Marine. The fact that he’s not coming back is still a lot for me” to process.
Nick Quets served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and was proud to have been “meritoriously promoted” from infantryman to lance corporal, said his brother-in-law Phil Sweet, a retired captain and special agent for the U.S. Air Force.
The two quickly became “best friends” after Sweet met Quets’ sister Alexis about five years ago, Sweet said. The Sweets, Quets’ parents and Nick Quets were neighbors in their Vail community. Nick Quets dropped by often, always greeting his 2-year-old nephew first, Sweet said.
“Nick was my son’s favorite person,” Sweet said. “These cowardly cartel members stole my son’s favorite person in the world.”
The family says they’re still trying to accept what happened and begin the grieving process. But they’re angry with what they say has been insufficient information and responsiveness from U.S. authorities following the Oct. 18 shooting.
They want U.S. law enforcement directly involved in the investigation in Mexico, and suspects extradited to the U.S. for trial.
Nick Quets, far right, stands with his parents Douglas and Patricia, and sister Alexis Sweet, in front of the University of Arizona’s Old Main building in this 2019 photo. Quets, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Tucson, was fatally shot while driving on a Sonora highway near Altar on Oct. 18 en route to Rocky Point.
Quets’ family said the only official information they’ve received on what happened to Nick Quets is that he was shot from behind while driving his 1996 Ford F-250, and he was struck in the heart. His companions were uninjured.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations has contacted the family, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
“We refer you to local authorities for information on the Mexican investigation. We are actively engaged with the FBI to see how they may be able to assist,” the statement said.
A spokesman for the Sonora Attorney General’s Office said Mexican security forces have been scouring the desert around Altar and Caborca, Sonora, in search of the perpetrators.
Tall and athletic, Nick Quets struck an “imposing” figure, his father said, but his kindness was obvious to those who met him.
The summer after his sophomore year of high school, Nick Quets grew from 5’4” to 6’3”, Doug Quets said. But Nick never forgot what it was like to be a skinny kid and was quick to defend anyone he saw being bullied, he said.
“He had a gentle heart,” Doug Quets said. “He was a protector.”
Marine Corps veteran Nick Quets always wanted to serve his country, said his father Doug Quets, a 20-year Army veteran. Nick Quets, pictured here at age 5 with his father, was fatally shot on a Sonora highway on Oct. 18.
Nick Quets began working in Pima County’s wastewater reclamation division last month, and many of his new co-workers have reached out to the family, his father said.
“He had the same effect on them that he did on his Marine Corps friends and his college friends,” he said. “He was the life of the party.”
Quets had an adventurous spirit and was an avid outdoorsman, diver and certified welder, his family said. He’d visited Puerto Peñasco, San Carlos and other places in Sonora “countless times” and felt comfortable in Mexico, his father said. He wishes the family had been aware of the turmoil in the region.
Dangerous region in Sonora
On Oct. 18 just before 8 p.m., Quets and two friends, who were Mexican nationals, were traveling to the resort town of Puerto Peñasco — commonly known as “Arizona’s beach” — via Federal Highway 2, having crossed into Mexico through Nogales, his family said.
Near Altar, Sonora, a vehicle pulled up to Quets’ truck and opened fire in a “direct attack,” according to the Sonora Attorney General’s Office. Before the shooting, an armed group had tried to stop the truck at a checkpoint and gunmen opened fire after the vehicle didn’t stop, the Arizona Daily Star reported on Monday.
Highway 2 passes through a volatile region of northwest Sonora that been embroiled in territorial battles between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel since last fall.
In October hundreds of residents began fleeing the border town of Sásabe, Sonora, when extreme violence broke out. Those fleeing said the Mexican government was failing to protect them from terrifying gun battles between the criminal groups. Sásabe was left a “ghost town“ by December, the Star reported.
Insight Crime reported last year that two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, which has long dominated the area, were fighting over control of migrant-smuggling routes.
Criminal organizations in the region also surveil traffic along many of the roads there, sometimes setting up “illicit checkpoints” manned by armed men.
Tucson resident Nick Quets
As a veteran, Quets was trained to take action in dangerous situations, such as if he perceived a checkpoint was run by criminals, his family said.
Quets’ killing is the second time in the past year that a U.S. resident or citizen has been fatally shot on Highway 2 after reportedly failing to stop at an illicit checkpoint. In a third incident, two Arizona women, one a U.S. citizen and one a legal permanent resident, were killed on a different stretch of this same highway, heading to Caborca from the Lukeville port of entry.
The U.S. and Mexican consulates in Nogales did not respond to the Arizona Daily Star’s request for guidance on how U.S. citizens should handle these checkpoints.
A spokesman for the Mexican consul in Tucson said that type of guidance must come from a U.S. consulate or the State Department, which also did not respond to the Star’s question.
The U.S. State Department says its employees may not travel through the triangular region west of the Mariposa U.S. Port of Entry; east of Sonoyta, Sonora; and north of Altar, Sonora, on Highway 2.
The agency recommends U.S. citizens only use Highway 8 to reach Puerto Peñasco. Highway 15 from Nogales to Hermosillo is also considered a safe thoroughfare.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance highlighted Quets’ death in recent campaign rallies in Arizona. Quets’ family hopes the publicity will help them get justice for Nick Quets, and prompt security reforms in Mexico to prevent future violence.
“We cannot change the horrific murder of my son, but we can ensure that another mother doesn’t suffer the same tragedy,” Quets’ mother Patricia said Friday. “We have the power to make a change.”
