Man Whose Wife Died in El Paso Massacre Invites Public to Funeral

Law enforcement officers responding to an active shooter situation at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3, 2019. (Joel Angel Juarez/AFP/Getty Images)

A Texas man who lost his wife in the El Paso Walmart mass shooting invited the public to her funeral because he doesn’t have any other family in the area who can attend.

Margie Reckard, 63, was married to Antonio Basco, 61, when she was killed in the massacre on Aug. 3.

The Perches Funeral Home shared a Facebook post inviting people to attend her service on Friday. It also posted a photo of Basco surrounded by flowers and candles.

The service is going to be held at the funeral home’s location at 4946 Hondo Pass, from 5 to 9 p.m.

“Let’s show him & his wife some El Paso love,” the funeral home wrote on Facebook.

Members of Reckard’s family will be arriving from out of him, reported KTSM of El Paso.

“We want to thank the people of El Paso because without them I don’t know what we would have done,” Reckard’s daughter-in-law Hilda Nuzzi told local station KTSM. “Everyone is amazing.”

The station reported that Reckard, who was originally from Baltimore, had a daughter and two sons.

Basco told KFOX in El Paso that he and Reckard were married for 22 years.

“When I met her, she was an angel, and she still is,” Basco said. “I was supposed to be the strong one, but I found out I’m the weak one, and she’s going to be missed a lot.”

“I’ve been lost. I’m like a puppy run away from its momma,” he added, according to the New York Post. “But my wife, she’d say get up off your rear end and grow up. Because now I’ve got to take care of the bills, take care of the cat.”

3 Victims Still Critical

Half of those injured in the mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart remain in the hospital 10 days later.

Three people are still in critical condition and another 10 patients are in stable or “good” condition, according to officials the University Medical Center of El Paso and Del Sol Medical Center. The shooting left 22 people dead.

Nine of the nearly two-dozen surviving victims have been discharged.

A woman kneels at a makeshift memorial outside Walmart, near the scene of a mass shooting which left at least 22 people dead in El Paso, Texas on Aug. 5, 2019. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Thousands more El Paso residents have been grappling with trauma after the attack. From those who witnessed the shooting in the packed store on Aug. 3 , to the families who began burying their loved ones over the weekend.

Tuesday was the last day that wraparound counseling and other social services were available at the El Paso Convention Center.

Patrick Crusius, the suspected shooter, is charged with capital murder and being held without bond while investigators continue to process the carnage at the crime scene. Police said the Dallas-area resident, 21, told them he was targeting Mexicans.

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said it could take weeks to finish collecting forensic evidence at the Walmart.

A makeshift memorial the length of the store continued to grow Tuesday. It is decorated with 22 crosses, flags of the three nationalities of the victims—American, Mexican, and German—as well as hundreds of devotional candles and countless handwritten messages of support.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.