Man Trying to Cross Border to Visit Son in Arizona Says GPS Took Him Into Gang War Zone

An American man who lives and works in Mexico says he was ambushed and shot as he attempted to cross into the U.S. to visit his son on Christmas Eve.

Craig Ricketts remains hospitalized in Tucson following his ordeal.

Several border crossings between Mexico and Arizona have been closed for nearly a month. The U.S. Border Patrol said it needed to move resources to take migrants crossing into the U.S. into custody.

Ricketts told KTVK-TV that since the Lukeville checkpoint was closed, he planned to enter the U.S. at the Nogales crossing, but his GPS took him into a part of the Sonoran Desert that rival gangs have been fighting over.

He said he drove into an ambush and gunmen opened fire on his car.

“The first thing I noticed was my left window was shattered,” Ricketts said from his hospital bed. “I saw a bullet hole through my front window, and my radio was blown out with a bullet.”

Ricketts was hit twice.

“I got hit once in my arm, which feels like a bicycle scrape when you’re a kid, and the other is my left leg,” Ricketts told the TV station.

This is the second violent incident involving U.S. citizens trying to navigate around border closures.

Three U.S. residents were shot at and one was killed in a highway shooting on Dec. 16, 2023 in Sonora, Mexico.

Despite the pain and suffering he feels, Ricketts said he doesn’t feel angry.  He was simply caught in the wrong place, he said.

“The bottom line is they don’t know who I am. They just wanted to secure their access for smuggling people,” Ricketts said.