Joe Garcia, husband of Irma Garcia, one of the two teachers killed Tuesday night while trying to protect their students in Uvalde, Texas, has died of a heart attack. This has been reported on Twitter by who presents himself as his nephew. John Martinez attributes Joe’s death to grief in a message that presents the events as “extremely heartbreaking” and in which he asks his followers to pray for his family.

Joe’s death has also been referred to by Matthew Seedorff, a journalist for the Fox 26 channel in Houston, who assures that he has spoken with the family and specifies that the death was caused by a heart attack. In his message, he recalled that the couple had been married for 24 years and had four children.

Irma García had been a finalist in 2019 along with 18 other professors from the San Antonio (Texas) area for the Trinity University award for excellence in teaching. Along with Eva Mireles, she was one of the teachers killed in an indiscriminate shooting inside a classroom that also killed 19 children.

The news of Joe’s death just two days after Irma’s has also been confirmed by Debra Austin, a cousin of hers who had started a fundraiser to help defray funeral costs. She, on her initiative, attributes the death to “a medical emergency.”

“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart, losing the love of his life for over 30 years was too much to bear,” writes Debra Austin.

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