Guillermo Garcia, Wounded in El Paso Walmart Mass Shooting, Dies, Bringing Death Toll to 23
TRAGIC POSTSCRIPT
PAUL RATJE
A man shot in the August 2019 attack targeting Latinos in an El Paso Walmart has died after months in the hospital, raising the death toll from the attack to 23, according to a hospital official. “After a nearly nine-month fight, our hearts are heavy as we report Guillermo ‘Memo’ Garcia, our last remaining patient being treated from the El Paso shooting, has passed away,” said Del Sol Medical Center CEO David Shimp. Garcia and his wife, Jessica Coca Garcia, were running a fundraiser for their daughter’s soccer team in the Walmart parking lot when the suspected gunman opened fire. Garcia is survived by his wife, who suffered leg wounds but recovered. The suspect, 21-year-old Dallas-area man Patrick Crusius, remains in jail awaiting trial. State prosecutors have charged him with murder and are pursuing the death penalty, and federal prosecutors charged him with hate crimes. Police attributed to him a four-page racist screed that decried a Hispanic “invasion” of Texas and the U.S., and called for ethnic and racial segregation.