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Devastating footage shows the widower of a teacher killed in the Texas school massacre visit a memorial to his late wife just hours before he too died of what relatives said was a broken heart.
Joe Garcia, 43, was filmed toting a large vase of red roses to the memorial site at Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday morning, two days after his wife Irma’s murder.
Just hours later Joe himself was dead of a heart attack, with relatives blaming the anguish of his wife’s passing for the fatal cardiac arrest.
The couple had been wed for 24 years; Joe was a teacher, while Irma was a fourth grade teacher at the now-infamous Robb Elementary School.
They were parents to four children, three of whom were filmed embracing one another at a mass to remember their parents later on Thursday night.
Those youngsters are Cristian, 23; Jose, 19; Lyliana, 16; and Alysandra, 12.
At one point Jose was seen weeping as he was overcome with the week’s horrific events.
Father Eduardo Morales blessed them the three siblings who attended the service and told them: ‘We are your family. Your mother and father will always find a way to take care of you.’
Cristian is at military boot camp while her second son, Jose, attends Texas State University.
A GoFundMe page set up to help the Garcia children rebuild their lives had collected more than $557,000 in donations by Thursday night.
After Tuesday’s slaughter at the hands of 18 year-old gunman Salvador Ramos, dozens of stories have emerged of individual tragedies and acts of heroism.
But the cascade of grief inflicted on the Garcia children is amongst the most upsetting of them all.
Irma was killed alongside her co-teacher Eva Mireles, 44, and 19 of their students by gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, who was then shot dead.
Joe Garcia, in the grey t-shirt, is seen visiting the memorial to his wife of 24 years – his childhood sweetheart – on Thursday morning. He died of a heart attack shortly after
The Garcia children are seen on Thursday evening being comforted by the priest. Their mother was murdered in her classroom on Tuesday; their father died on Thursday morning from a heart attack
A cross for Irma Garcia is seen in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas
Joe Garcia, the husband of hero teacher Irma, died of a heart attack on Thursday
The couple’s nephew confirmed Joe’s death on Twitter on Thursday
John Martinez, Irma’s nephew, said Joe died from ‘grief’ after returning home from delivering flowers to the memorial.
Irma’s cousin, Debra Austin, said she was ‘devastated to report Irma’s husband Joe has tragically passed away this morning as a result of a medical emergency.’
Irma Garcia, 46
She added: ‘I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear.’
Garcia’s husband and son can be seen in a Facebook photo holding a heart-shaped sign that reads ‘Proud Bobcat family,’ – a nod to the football team at Texas State.
Garcia was previously a nominee for teacher of the year.
She was one of 19 San Antonio-area educators named as finalists for Trinity University’s prize for excellence in teaching in 2019.
Garcia at the time taught third grade, specializing in social studies and ELAR, or English Language Arts and Reading.
‘I am so excited to begin this new school year already!’ she wrote on the school district’s website before the start of the school year.
Jose, 19, said his mother ‘treated her students as her own,’ and decorated her classrooms with college memorabilia, to inspire them to reach their academic potential.
‘She wanted to instill that in their brains,’ he said. ‘They were her lifeblood. She loved engaging with children and teaching them. She loved her job and she loved her co-workers.’
Joe and Irma Garcia were childhood sweethearts and raised four children
Joe and Irma Garcia with one of their two daughters. The couple had four children and were married for 24 years
Irma and Joe had been married for 24 years and the couple had four kids
Survivors from the shooting have told how Garcia and fellow teacher Eva Mireles, 44, died shielding them from the gunman’s bullets.
‘She passed away with children in her arms trying to protect them,’ Garcia’s nephew John Martinez wrote on Twitter.
‘Those weren’t just her students, they were her kids as well.’
Mireles’ daughter revealed how her mother ‘jumped in front of students’ in a heartbreaking tribute on Wednesday.
‘I don’t know how to do this life without you, but I will take care of dad.
‘I will take care of our dogs and I will forever say your name so you are always remembered, Eva Mireles, 4th grade teacher at Robb Elementary who selflessly jumped in front of her students to save their lives,’ Adalynn Ruiz wrote on Facebook.
The grandmother of one of the children who narrowly escaped the mass shooting said her granddaughter heard Ramos say, on entering the room, ‘what do I have here?’
‘My granddaughter can’t take that out of her mind what he said… she had to run out the window,’ Anita Alves told ITV.com.
Mireles was trained in bilingual and special education, loved outdoor activities such as running and hiking, and cherished her husband, daughter and ‘three furry friends,’ according to a biography on the school’s website.
Her husband, Ruben Ruiz, is a police officer on the school district’s police force, the agency investigating the massacre.
Irma Garcia, 46, and Eva Mireles, 44, were shot dead alongside 19 students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday in the latest mass shooting to rock the U.S.
Mireles’ (left) husband, Ruben Ruiz, is a police officer on the school district’s police force, the agency investigating the massacre
Mireles’ daughter recounted on social media how her mother had asked her to take a picture to share on the school’s website.
‘I remember my mom making me take this picture of her and she had me take like 50 before she found one she liked, she wanted it to be perfect because she had to send it into the school website for her students to see, my mom had a special place in her heart for her students . Remember this hero,’ Adalynn Ruiz wrote.
Mireles’ aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, grieved for her niece in a Facebook post, asking for prayers for her family and the entire town of Uvalde.
‘I’m furious that these shootings continue. These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all. This is my hometown, a small community of less than 20,000. I never imagined this would happen to especially loved ones,’ she said in a statement.
‘All we can do is pray hard for our country, state, schools, and especially the families of all.’
Uvalde, nearly 80 miles west of San Antonio, has about 16,000 residents with almost 80 percent of them Hispanic or Latino, according to US Census data.
There were two days left in the school year when Tuesday’s massacre unfolded.
Uvalde has canceled schools across the district for the remainder of the year and established grief counseling for survivors.
Frightening details have been steadily emerged since the tragedy, which was the 27th shooting at a K-12 school in the U.S. this year according to Education Week.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott revealed that the killer also shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face before heading to Robb Elementary School.
Ramos went on social media to share his plan to attack his grandmother – who, though gravely injured, was able to alert police.
He then messaged again to say his next target was a school, where he headed clad in body armor and wielding an AR-15 rifle.
Abbott repeatedly brushed aside suggestions for tougher gun laws in Texas when pressed on how the teen was able to obtain the murder weapon.
New information reveals the shooter was not confronted by a school resource officer as he walked through the doors of the school. At 11.44, he shot at cops who had made their way inside. They retreated and he was left in the classroom with the victims. It took another hour for SWAT to arrive and kill him, during which time the injured kids inside had been languishing waiting for help
Texas Department of Public Safety South Regional Director Victor Escalon gives an update into the investigation following a mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde
Texas cops have revealed that there was no armed guard on campus when the gunman arrived on Tuesday which allowed him to walk ‘unobstructed’ through an unlocked door and into the building where he slaughtered 21 people.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Victor Escalon, the Regional Director for the Department of Public Safety South Texas, said Salvador Ramos walked through an unlocked door ‘unobstructed’ and that there was no guard ‘readily available’.
It contradicts earlier reports that he fired at a school resource officer.
Ramos entered the school at 11.40am, 12 minutes after crashing his truck outside the school and walking towards campus with his AR-15.
That is when police were alerted to the scene.
At 11.44am, the first cops entered the school. Ramos shot at them and they retreated.
It’s unclear if he had already shot the kids and teachers in the fourth grade classroom by then, or if he went on to attack them after those officers retreated.
It then took an hour for specialized SWAT teams to arrive.
At 1.06pm, the incident was declared over after Ramos was shot dead.
In the meantime, 150 cops were gathering outside.
Some of them were filmed pinning parents to the floor and some were even placed in handcuffs, according to witnesses.
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