As He Was Dying, Aurora Shooting Victim Texted Wife

Josh Pinkard wanted to say one final 'I love you'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 18, 2019 3:43 PM CST
Updated Feb 18, 2019 4:14 PM CST
As He Was Dying, Aurora Shooting Victim Texted Wife
Mary Lemos lights a candle at a makeshift memorial Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019, in Aurora, Ill., near Henry Pratt Co. manufacturing company where several were killed on Friday.   (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

One of Josh Pinkard's last acts was to make sure he told his wife he loved her. The 39-year-old was the plant manager at Henry Pratt Co., the manufacturing warehouse in Aurora, Ill., where a gunman shot and killed five employees moments after learning he was being fired last week. "Friday afternoon, the day after Valentine’s Day, was a literal nightmare," Pinkard's wife Terra wrote on Facebook. "I received a text at 1:24 from my precious husband that said I love you, I’ve been shot at work. It took me several times reading it for it to hit me that it was for real." She tried to reach Josh, with no luck, then drove to the plant and two hospitals looking for news before finally learning he had been killed.

Her post mourns "the man who was dying and found the clarity of mind for just a second to send me one last text to let me know he would always love me." She says telling their three children their father was dead was the hardest thing she's ever done. "I wanted everybody to know that that was Josh," Terra, 37, said on the Today show Monday. "And in that moment when he was going through what he went through, he thought of me. And he wanted me to know that he loved me." Meanwhile, the AP reports the plant won't reopen until next week, but its doors are open to any employees who want to spend time there with their colleagues; counselors will be available. (Also killed: a college student on the first day of his internship.)

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