Guillermo Garcia, a 36-year-old Hispanic man known affectionately as “Memo” or “Tank,” was a beloved youth soccer coach and devoted family man in El Paso, Texas. He and his wife, Jessica Coca Garcia, were high school sweethearts who had built a life together with their two children, Karina and a son. Friends and family remembered Guillermo as a selfless person who, even during the most difficult times, blessed others with jokes, smiles, and laughter.
His commitment to his community was evident in his role as a coach for the El Paso Fusion soccer team, on which his daughter played.
On the morning of August 3, 2019, Guillermo and his family were outside the Cielo Vista Walmart, selling lemonade and snacks as part of a fundraiser for the soccer team. Around 11 a.m., a gunman opened fire in a racially motivated attack. As the shooting began, Guillermo instinctively tried to shield his wife and children from the bullets. He was shot twice in the leg and once in the back, sustaining catastrophic injuries. His wife Jessica was also gravely wounded, shot three times in her legs. Their children, then 11 and 5 years old, were physically unharmed.
Guillermo was rushed to Del Sol Medical Center, where he began a long and arduous battle for his life. For nearly nine months, he endured more than a dozen surgeries and remained in intensive care, becoming the last hospitalized survivor of the attack. The hospital’s CEO later remarked on his incredible resilience, stating, “His courage, his strength and his story have touched many lives, including those of our caregivers, who tirelessly fought with him and for him every step of the way.” Despite his determination, Guillermo Garcia passed away from his injuries late on the night of April 25, 2020, becoming the 23rd fatality of the massacre. His wife called him a “warrior” who “won many battles but lost the war.”
The shooter, Patrick Wood Crusius, then 21, was arrested shortly after the attack after surrendering to police. He had driven more than 600 miles from his home in Allen, Texas, and allegedly told investigators he was targeting “Mexicans.” Authorities also found a manifesto he had posted online that expressed anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant sentiments. The shooting was deemed the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern American history.
Crusius was indicted on dozens of federal hate crime and firearms offenses, as well as a state charge of capital murder. In February 2023, he pleaded guilty to all 90 federal charges against him. In July 2023, he was formally sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in federal prison. Crusius still faces the state capital murder charge, to which he has pleaded not guilty. As of July 2023, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty in the state case, but a trial date had not yet been scheduled.
