KEY POINTS

  • The 23rd victim of the mass shooting inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, has died
  • Guillermo "Memo" Garcia passed away Saturday after nearly nine-months in the hospital
  • Garcia was shot in the spine while his wife, Jessica, suffered gunshot wounds to the leg
  • The couple were in the Walmart parking lot fundraising for their daughter's soccer team when the suspect open fired

After months in the hospital, Guillermo “Memo” Garcia passed away Saturday, making him the 23rd victim to die from the gruesome August 3 Walmart shooting in El Paso, Texas.

The youth soccer coach was the last remaining patient from the mass shooting that also injured more than 20 people.

Del Sol Medical Center Chief Executive Officer David Shimp broke the news of Garcia's passing, saying that their “hearts are heavy” and that the victim fought for nearly nine months before succumbing to his injuries.

A memorial near the El Paso, Texas Walmart where 22 people were killed in August during a mass shooting
A memorial near the El Paso, Texas Walmart where 22 people were killed in August during a mass shooting. Two people were killed and a child was injured during a shooting a Texas university. AFP / Mark RALSTON

Garcia was with his wife, Jessica Coca Garcia, in the Walmart parking area fundraising for their daughter's soccer team when the suspect, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius open fired using an AK-47.

Guillermo was shot in the spine while Jessica sustained gunshot wounds to her leg and survived the attack, said FOX News.

“Racism is something I always wanted to think didn't exist. Obviously, it does,” said Jessica in a statement while addressing the crowd that gathered at the League of United Latin American Citizens a week after the shooting.

“I love you, El Paso. This is where I'm going to stay,” Jessica added.

The crown who joined Jessica pushed for, among others, gun reform and called for the cease in racial discrimination, said the Associated Press.

Crusius traveled hundreds of miles from his hometown in Allen, Texas to El Paso and entered the store which was, at that time, packed with "as many as 3,000 people."

El Paso, Texas, Police Chief Greg Allen told People that authorities were alerted about an active shooter at 10:39 a.m. First responders then arrived at the scene six minutes later.

Despite Crusius surrendering to authorities “without incident,” Allen pointed that the suspect has a “nexus” to a “hate crime” at the time of the shooting. Police also told CNN they believed Crusius wrote a “document filled with hatred aimed at immigrants and Latinos,” and warned of an impending “Hispanic invasion” of Texas.

NBC News reported that prosecutors are eyeing death penalty for Cruisius, while federal officials are looking for capital murder and hate crime charges. A federal prosecutor also told the outlet the federal authorities are “treating the case as domestic terrorism.”

Two months after the shooting, Crisius, who was then held without bail, waived the reading of court documents and pleaded not guilty.

RELATED STORIES
Walmart