The husband of one of the teachers killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas died on Thursday.
Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, suffered a fatal heart attack, two days after his wife died.
“Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers shot and killed in Uvalde, TX on Tuesday, has reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack. Joe and Irma were high school sweethearts and married 24 years. They leave behind four children,” Ernie Zuniga of KAAB news in San Antonio, Texas wrote on Twitter.
The couple’s nephew, John Martinez, and a close family friend also confirmed the news.
“EXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief, i truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY, God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy,” Martinez wrote on Twitter.
The couple had known each other since the eighth grade and was set to celebrate their 25th anniversary this year, family said.
Irma Garcia had been co-teaching with Eva Mireles, 44, the other teacher killed in the attack, in the same classroom for five years, according to ABC News.
The two teachers along with 19 of their students were murdered in their classroom on Tuesday when suspected gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire with an AR-15 after barricading himself in the classroom. It is the deadliest school shooting in the U.S since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
Martinez told the New York Times that law enforcement officials found his aunt in the classroom “embracing children in her arms pretty much until her last breath.”
