‘Tank tough’: Mourners turn out at vigil for 23rd El Paso Walmart shooting victim

EL PASO, Texas — Dozens of mourners turned out for a vigil held Monday evening in honor of a man shot in the Aug. 3 attack targeting Latinos at the Cielo Vista Walmart who died after months in the hospital.

The death of Guillermo ‘Memo’ Garcia over the weekend raised the death toll from the attack to 23.

The vigil for the man also known to his friends as "Tank" took place in the parking lot of Del Sol Medical Center, where Garcia had passed away. Friends, family and members of the community donned face masks, wore his favorite color blue, and brought signs reading "Tank Tough" to pay tribute.

“After a nearly nine-month fight, our hearts are heavy as we report Guillermo ‘Memo’ Garcia, our last remaining patient being treated from the El Paso shooting, has passed away,” hospital CEO David Shimp said Sunday in announcing the death.

Garcia and his wife Jessica Coca Garcia were fundraising for their daughter’s soccer team in the Walmart parking lot when the suspected gunman opened fire that Saturday morning.

"He fought long and hard, with the help of all his troops he won many battles but lost the war. I would like to thank the community for all the love, support, and prayers," Jessica Garcia told ABC-7.

Garcia is survived by his wife, who suffered leg wounds in the shooting but recovered. A week after the shooting, she rose from her wheelchair to give a speech across the road from the El Paso County Jail where the suspected shooter was being held.

“Racism is something I always wanted to think didn’t exist. Obviously, it does,” she said at the time.

The suspect, 21-year-old Dallas-area man Patrick Crusius, remains in the same jail awaiting trial. State prosecutors have charged him with murder and are pursuing the death penalty, and federal prosecutors charged him with hate crimes.

In addition to the existing charges, El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza told ABC-7 on Monday that he "will seek a new capital murder indictment to include the tragic death of Mr. Guillermo Garcia.”

Police said they arrested Crusius near the shooting after he surrendered to officers, telling them he was targeting “Mexicans.” They also attributed to him a four-page racist screed that decried a Hispanic “invasion” of Texas and the U.S., and called for ethnic and racial segregation.

The shooting was the largest terrorist attack targeting Hispanics in modern history, and spread fear throughout the Latino community.

In the wake of the attack El Paso police said the Walmart had previously hired armed off-duty police officers to guard larger stores, but removed them at some point.

The Garcia family joined a number of victims who sued the Walmart over lack of security on the busy Saturday shopping day when about 3,000 people were in the store. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Following the attack, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company added armed and unarmed officers to all of its stores. It stopped selling handguns and short-barrel rifle ammunition.

The store where the shooting took place reopened in November.

(Editor's note: You can watch the entire vigil for 'Memo' Garcia in the video player below.)