Husband of Uvalde shooting victim dies of heart attack, family says
Joe Garcia, whose wife, Irma, was killed Tuesday in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has died of a heart attack, according to a family member.
The two were married for 24 years before the gunman opened fire on Irma Garcia’s fourth-grade classroom, killing 19 children along with Garcia and another teacher, Eva Mireles.
“EXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief,” their nephew John Martinez wrote on Twitter.
In a separate Tweet, he said Joe Garcia had died of a heart attack at home.
The gunman posted his intentions on Facebook before shooting his grandmother, going to the elementary school and barricading himself in a classroom.
“He’s with his wife now,” he said.
Martinez did not immediately respond to a request for comment but told NBC News he was struggling to process the deaths.
“I don’t even know how to feel. I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it,” he said.
According to Irma Garcia’s school profile, she had been a teacher for 23 years, all of which were spent at Robb Elementary.
“I love to BBQ with my husband, listen to music, and take country cruises to Concan,” she wrote in the profile.
They have four children, the youngest of whom is in the seventh grade, the profile says.
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