The wife of one of five people killed in last week’s Aurora, Illinois, massacre revealed her husband’s final text message: “I love you, I’ve been shot at work.”
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Terra Pinkard grieved husband Josh, who was killed Friday at water valve manufacturer Henry Pratt Co. when a fired employee opened fire. Six law enforcers were wounded.
Pinkard called the day “a literal nightmare.”
“It took me several times reading it for it to hit me that it was for real,” she wrote of the text from her husband. She said she called him, texted him back and attempted to FaceTime him with no response.
“I called his plant and a lady answered and said she was barricaded in her room and police were everywhere. Of course my heart dropped.”
Delivering the news to her family, Pinkard said, “I told my children their dad did not make it and is in heaven with Jesus. I’ve never had to do something that hard.”
Pinkard described Josh, the newly appointed plant manager, as “brilliant,” her “best friend” and “the man I would have leaned on during devastation like this who would tell me it’s ok Terra, it is all going to be fine.”
“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.”