Grieving husband of teacher killed in Texas school shooting collapses and dies

Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of the two teachers killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, died on Thursday of a heart attack, said his nephew John Martinez.

Joe Garcia (50) dropped off flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas, and returned home, where he “pretty much just fell over” and died, his nephew John Martinez said.

Mr Garcia had been stricken with grief after he lost his wife, Martinez said. “I’m really in shock right now,” he added.

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Irma Garcia, a teacher for more than two decades, was known as a steadfast optimist in her family. She would crack jokes at gatherings and sing her favorite classic rock tunes during parties, Martinez said.

“She’s always been optimistic about everything and just so loving with the people in her life,” said Mr Martinez, 21, a student at Texas State University.

When the authorities went inside the classroom moments after the shooting, Mr Martinez said, they “found her body there, embracing children in her arms pretty much until her last breath”.

The couple had been married for 24 years and had four children together — including a son in the Marine Corps.

Mr Martinez told The Detroit Free Press that the family was struggling to grasp that while the couple’s oldest son trained for combat, it was his mother who was shot to death.

“Stuff like this should not be happening in schools,” he told the newspaper.

The motive for the massacre — the nation’s deadliest school shooting since the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut — remained under investigation, with authorities saying the 18-year-old gunman had no known criminal or mental health history.

The rampage rocked a country already weary from gun violence and shattered the community of Uvalde, a largely Latino town of some 16,000 people about 120km (75 miles) from the Mexican border.

According to her staff biography, Ms Garcia’s family loved having barbecues. The 48-year-old also enjoyed listening to music and travelling to Concan, a community along the Frio river about 40km (25 miles) north of Uvalde.

The couple’s oldest child, Cristian, is a Marine. The couple’s other son, Jose, attends Texas State University. Their eldest daughter, Lyliana, is a high school sophomore, while her younger sister is in the seventh grade.

The school year, scheduled to end on Thursday, was Ms Garcia’s 23rd year of teaching — all of it at Robb Elementary School. She was previously named the school’s teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University.

For five years, Ms Garcia co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed.

The suspect, Salvador Ramos, was inside the classroom for more than an hour before he was killed in a shoot-out with law enforcement, authorities said.

“Mrs Irma Garcia was my mentor when I began teaching,” her colleague Allison McCullough wrote when Ms Garcia was named teacher of the year.

“The wealth of knowledge and patience that she showed me was life-changing.” —This article originally appeared in The New York Times / Additional reporting from AP