a compounding tragedy

Family: Husband of teacher killed in Texas school shooting has died of a heart attack

May 26, 2022

.polaris__post-meta--date { display: none; } .polaris__post-meta--date.no-script { display: block; padding-left: 45px } May 26, 2022

The grief-stricken husband of a teacher killed Tuesday in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, died on Thursday of a heart attack, his family announced.

Irma Garcia, 48, was one of the two teachers killed in the massacre. Her husband, Joe Garcia, 50, visited a memorial to his wife on Thursday to drop off flowers, his nephew John Martinez told The New York Times, and when he returned home, "he pretty much just fell over." In an interview with NBC News, Martinez said first responders "tried doing chest compressions and nothing worked ... they couldn't bring him back."

This is Joe Garcia. Today, journalists recorded him placing flowers at a cross that had his wife’s name on it. His wife, Irma, was a teacher who was killed in the Uvalde, Texas massacre. Not long after placing flowers, Joe died of a heart attack. pic.twitter.com/6nrRNHdqvs
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) May 27, 2022

Irma and Joe Garcia were married for 24 years, and had four children, with the youngest in their teens.

Martinez told the Times his aunt was "optimistic about everything and just so loving with the people in her life." He also shared that when law enforcement officers entered Garcia's classroom after the shooting, they "found her body there, embracing children in her arms pretty much until her last breath."