The husband of a teacher who was shot dead in the horrific Texas school attack on Tuesday has suffered a fatal heart attack, according to reports.
Irma Garcia was gunned down by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde this week in the US.
Her grieving husband Joe Garcia “passed away due to grief”, according to a relative.
The pair were high school sweethearts and had been married 24 years.
Irma and Joe shared four children together, report Mirror Online.
Irma’s nephew John Martinez, writing on social media on Thursday evening, said: “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.”
In another post, he added: “My Tia Irma and Joe garcia were high school sweethearts and leave behind four beautiful children, their ages being 23, 19, 15 and the youngest only being 13-years-old, no child should have to go through this, my heart breaks for them.”
Speaking on Facebook in the aftermath of the shooting, John also posted: “She sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom, I beg of you to keep my family, including all of her family, in y’all’s prayers.
“IRMA GARCIA IS HER NAME and she died a HERO, she was loved by many and will truly be missed,” he added.
Irma, 46, and colleague Eva Mireles, 44, were both killed by Ramos along with 19 kids before the killer was gunned down by police.
The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Ramos was able to enter the school without any confrontation, authorities have said, contradicting earlier reports that a police officer engaged him outside the building.
The teenager crashed his pickup truck outside the school at 11.28am (4.28pm GMT) and fired several shots at two bystanders across the street.
He walked into the school at 11.40am (4.40pm GMT), Victor Escalon, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a news conference on Thursday.
Escalon said officers arrived and entered the school four minutes later but took cover after Ramos fired multiple rounds at them and barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom, where he shot his victims.
An hour passed before a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team breached the classroom and killed Ramos, Escalon confirmed.
The newly detailed timeline came hours after videos emerged showing desperate parents outside Robb Elementary School during the attack, imploring officers maintaining a perimeter to storm the building, with some fathers having to be restrained.
The massacre has reignited a national debate over the country’s gun laws.
President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have vowed to push for new restrictions, despite resistance from Republicans.
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