‘He Died Of A Broken Heart’: Family Of Slain Texas Teacher

UVALDE, TX — Joe Garcia, who was married to his high school sweetheart for 24 years and raised four children with her, died Thursday. He’s one of the casualties of Tuesday's massacre inside an elementary classroom in Uvalde, Texas, though his name doesn’t appear on the list of 21 people who were gunned down that day.

Joe Garcia died two days later, from what can rightly be called a “broken heart.” Irma, his wife, was among two teachers slaughtered alongside 19 children in Robb Elementary School.

Joe Garcia’s fatal heart attack, announced Thursday on GoFundMe by his family, was another agonizing moment for a nation grieving the carnage in the 27th school shooting — the 27th — in 2022, according to Education Week, which has tracked school shootings since 2018. With the Uvalde casualties added in, especially haunting given the tender age of the children, 27 people have been killed and 83 people have been injured in school shootings since Jan. 1.

“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart,” wrote Debra Austin, Irma Garcia’s cousin, “and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear.”

The day Joe Garcia’s heart stopped beating, new details about the terror his wife and the others endured inside the classroom were seared into the nation’s soul.

A girl, 11, smeared blood on her body and played dead, Blanca Rivera, the girl’s aunt, told news station KPRC in Houston. The girl, who had bullet fragments in her own back, “saw her friend full of blood … and put it on herself.”

• RELATED: She Smeared Blood On Herself And Played Dead

Another 11-year-old who survived viscerally described the experience to news station KENS in San Antonio: “He came in and he crouched a little bit and he said, he said, ‘It's time to die.’ ”

Before the gunman burst in, “I told my friend to hide under something so he won't find us," he said. “I was hiding hard. And I was telling my friend to not talk because he is going to hear us.”

Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles, the other teacher who was killed, saved his and other students’ lives, the boy said.

When Irma Garcia's body was found, she was cradling another student, her family said.

They weren’t surprised.

She died for those kids, John Martinez, Joe and Irma Garcia’s nephew, said on a GoFundMe page established before the family had two funerals to plan.

“She sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom,” he wrote. “She was a hero.”

Money raised on GoFundMe will offset funeral and other related expenses, Martinez said.

GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.

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