The pregnant wife of Miguel Angel Garcia said he remains unconscious after being shot multiple times outside of a Dallas ICE facility.
DALLAS — The wife of an immigrant detainee critically injured in a shooting outside a Dallas ICE facility says she is living in “a blur of fear and uncertainty” as her husband remains hospitalized.
Miguel Angel Garcia, a father of four with a fifth child due next week, was among two detainees wounded when a gunman opened fire on a transport van outside the facility on Sept. 24. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Jose Andres Bordones-Molina of Venezuela was also among the two injured.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed 37-year-old Norlan Guzman-Fuentes was killed in the shooting.
In an interview with WFAA, Garcia’s wife, Stephany Gauffeny, said she last spoke to Garcia on the phone the night before the shooting while he was still at the Tarrant County Jail. She said she had no idea he had been transferred to the Dallas ICE facility until after the attack.
“It’s just been a rollercoaster of emotions,” Gauffeny said. “I feel like it’s a dream… like I’m going to wake up and it’s just a nightmare.”
Surveillance video captured the moment gunshots rang out, sending detainees scrambling for safety as the suspect, identified by police as Joshua Jahn, 29, fired from a rooftop.
Gauffeny said her husband was shot eight to nine times and has remained unconscious since the attack. Their children still don’t know what happened to him, Gauffeny explained.
“[Doctors] tell me that he might never wake up, or he might wake up, and if he does, they’re like we don’t know if he’ll be able to talk, to move. We just don’t know,” she said.
Garcia, born in Mexico, was in the process of obtaining legal status, according to Gauffeny.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Garcia was initially arrested for DUI and evading arrest. He was later booked into the Tarrant County Jail before being transferred to ICE custody. His charge for evading arrest was later dropped, Gauffeny said.
Gauffeny said that, regardless of his record, her husband did not deserve what happened to him.
“Just because of those things, does that mean he deserved to get attacked?” she said. “He was a human being like everyone else.”
Family members have remained by his side at the hospital as Garcia’s condition remains critical.