TUCSON, Arizona — A Tucson family is in mourning after a horrific murder on the road to Rocky Point in Sonora, Mexico.
Nicholas Douglas Quets was shot and killed while heading to the beach with friends on Friday.
According to the Sonora Attorney General's Office, Quets was killed along the Caborca-Altar highway in a "direct attack" by armed men.
It said a vehicle with armed people drove up alongside Quets and began shooting. Paramedics arrived at the scene to provide medical care, but Quets had already died.
Nicholas' father Warren Quets and brother-in-law Phil Sweet, spoke exclusively with News 4 Tucson's Chief Investigative Reporter Chorus Nylander on Wednesday.
The family had just received his remains.
They are demanding justice, wanting the killer(s) prosecuted. No arrests have yet been made.
Officials in Sonora said they are investigating and launched a special operation to try and catch those responsible.
Warren told us that the family has only heard from a few elected leaders in the U.S. as well as Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance, who made the attack a topic of his Tuesday rally, but nobody directly representing the federal government.
He feels given Nicholas' military service and a 100 lineage of service within the family they are owed as much as a communication from the current administration.
They do not want to learn the details of what happened from media reports but direct intel confirmed by U.S. officials and would like to see the U.S. government involved in the investigation.
“Mexico is a great partner to the U.S. I am sure but this was a U.S. death 30 miles from the border, we need to have our U.S. law enforcement involved in it," Warren Quets said.
Nicholas was literally born with military service flowing through his veins, he was born in Panama where his father was stationed at the time.
Warren said Nicholas has wanted to serve his entire life. He shared a photograph of him and his son both wearing military outfits as Nicholas was a young child.
The photographs tell a story, Nicholas would later be seen in his marine uniform proudly joined by his father.
Nicholas spent four years in the marine corps after high school.
He received several degrees from Pima Community College and became a certified welder.
His final job upon his death was working for Pima County on water reclamation projects.
His absence has left a major hole in his family.
“He’s the life of the party, was a guy that often threw caution to the wind but never hurt anybody that wasn't a bad person," his father said.
Phil Sweet said Nicholas made a huge impact on his children.
“These cowards in Mexico, that we’ve been told are the cartel, took away my son’s favorite uncle, favorite person in the world and we demand justice for Nick," he said.
His family does not want his death to become political, but they were saddened to learn it wasn't the first case of violence against U.S. citizens in the same area this year.
As we've previously reported, two elderly women from Arizona were shot and killed in an armed attack in the same general area back in August.
Warren believes more needs to be done on both sides of the border to address the violence and threat to the safety of tourists.
He said his son has made many previous visits to Mexican beaches where he enjoyed scuba diving and other recreational activities. They have sometimes gone together.
“He went down there this time to enjoy the ocean, the one thing we don’t have right here in Arizona and he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
