The wife of a man gunned down in the mass shooting in an Illinois factory this week recalls the heartbreaking text message from him which read: ‘I love you, I’ve been shot at work.’
Terra Pinkard posted a heartfelt tribute to her late husband, Josh Pinkard, 37, who was one of five people killed by an armed co-worker at the Henry Pratt Co. plant in Aurora on Friday.
‘I received a text at 1:24 from my precious husband that said I love you, I’ve been shot at work,’ Pinkard wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.
‘It took me several times reading it for it to hit me that it was for real.’
Terra Pinkard (left) posted a heartfelt tribute to her late husband, Josh Pinkard (right), 37, who was one of five people killed by an armed co-worker at the Henry Pratt Co. plant in Aurora on Friday
‘I received a text at 1:24 from my precious husband that said I love you, I’ve been shot at work,’ Pinkard wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. ‘It took me several times reading it for it to hit me that it was for real.’
According to his LinkedIn page, Josh Pinkard worked for Mueller Water Products, Pratt’s parent company, for 12 years. He began work at the plant in Aurora last April
Terra Pinkard began a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign that has so far raised more than $11,000
She writes that she frantically tried to reach Josh, who was the manager of the plant, via text, FaceTime, and a phone call, but there was no answer.
Pinkard then writes that she called her husband’s factory and a woman answered.
The woman ‘said she was barricaded in her room and police were everywhere,’ Pinkard writes.
‘Of course my heart dropped.’
Police officers armed with rifles gather at the scene of the factory in Aurora on Friday afternoon after receiving reports of an active shooter
Locals braved freezing cold temperatures and held a candlelight vigil outside the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora on Sunday
Pinkard then describes the harrowing trip to her husband’s factory and the frantic efforts to learn of his fate.
She writes that after grabbing her children, she drove toward the plant and was met by a police-manned barricade.
‘She couldn’t tell me anything,’ Pinkard said of the police officer manning the roadblock.
‘I drove to the nearest hospital. He wasn’t there.
‘I drove to the second nearest hospital. Not there.’
Pinkard then managed to speak to the local police department, which directed her toward a staging area for victims’ families.
‘I don’t know how my body drove itself there but it did,’ she writes.
Pinkard then learned that her husband was indeed one of the slain victims.
‘I immediately left and went to get my kids,’ she writes.
‘With my pastors help, since family was still on planes to get to us, I told my children their dad did not make it and is in heaven with Jesus.
Trevor Wehner was a 22-year-old student at Northern Illinois University. He was starting his first day at Henry Pratt when he was killed and is seen above with his girlfriend Winter Lane
Vincente Juarez (second from left) was a stockroom attendant and forklift operator
Human Resources Manager Clayton Parks, seen with his family, was killed when an employee opened fire the moment he was told he was being let go from the job
Russell Beyer's sister Dawn posted a moving tribute after he was confirmed among the dead
‘I’ve never had to do something that hard.’
Pinkard praised her husband as ‘the smartest person I’ve ever met’ and ‘my best friend.’
‘I literally can’t talk out loud about this lovely man without breaking down in sobs,’ she writes.
‘I’m crying now as I write this.’
According to his LinkedIn page, Josh Pinkard worked for Mueller Water Products, Pratt’s parent company, for 12 years.
He began work at the plant in Aurora last April.
Terra Pinkard writes: ‘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
