Josh Pinkard was one of five victims of a workplace shooting in Aurora, Colorado
On Friday afternoon, Terra Pinkard received a text that would change her life forever.
“I love you,” wrote her husband, Josh. “I’ve been shot at work.”
It was the last thing she would ever hear from her husband. Josh Pinkard died at a nearby hospital, a victim of a workplace shooting in Aurora, Illinois. he was 37.
According to authorities, Gary Martin, 45, opened fire inside the Henry Pratt Company’s industrial manufacturing warehouse, killing five people and injuring 6 more, including a police officer. In a Saturday press conference, Aurora police chief Kristen Ziman said that Martin was being let go by the company in a meeting before he began shooting. He was fatally shot by police.
Aurora police got the call for an active shooter at 1:24 p.m. on Friday, Aurora police chief Kristen Ziman told reporters.
Those killed include an intern who was on his very first day with the company, a forklift operator and a father. A GoFundMe page has been set up to support their loved ones.
Before Josh Pinkard died, he managed to send the text to his wife. “It took me several times reading it for it to hit me that it was for real,” Terra Pinkard wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “I called his phone several times, text, FaceTime, nothing.”
Panicked, she called the company and learned that police were in the building. She jumped in her car and raced to the warehouse — and then to two hospitals. After waiting for hours, she learned the grim news: her husband was one of the five deceased victims.