Father of Jared Tucker, the victim named by his family in Thursday’s Barcelona attack, spoke out about the sudden tragedy and its effect on his loved ones.
‘I’m not angry so much as I just don’t understand it,’ Dan Tucker said in an interview with ABC 7, where he struggled to hold back tears. ‘My wife is in shock … It’s a lot harder on her.’
Dan remembered years with his son, who spent his childhood residing in the family’s home in Walnut Creek. He attended Ygnacio Valley High School and grew up to become a manager at the Tuckers’ swimming pool resurfacing business.
Jared, now 43, a father to three teenage daughters and a stepson, was on a European honeymoon vacationing with his wife Heidi when the deadly event broke out.
Dan Tucker, father of Jared Tucker who was killed in the Barcelona truck attack, stands by the pool in his backyard that was resurfaced by his son Friday, Aug. 18, 2017, in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Jared Tucker (right) was spending his first wedding anniversary with his wife Heidi when the deadly truck attack happened in Barcelona, Spain
Heidi said she and her husband decided to go shopping at the nearby souvenir huts when he told her he was going to leave to find a restroom, never to return
The couple had been toasting to one year of marriage just moments prior at a street cafe in the Las Ramblas district.
Heidi told ABC7 she and her husband decided to do a little shopping afterward at the nearby souvenir huts when he told her he was going to leave to find a restroom.
Minutes later, Heidi realized something was horribly wrong when she noticed her surroundings.
After Jared left, Heidi said she immediately heard ‘screaming, yelling, sirens, crying’ and noticed crowds running.
‘I got shoved into the souvenir kiosk and was able to kind of duck into there with a small group of people,’ she said.
Heidi and a group a people she was hiding with were evacuating by police to a a safer area.
A vehicle ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians on the city’s famous Las Ramblas boulevard on August 17, 2017
Terrorists responsible killed 14 people and wounded over a hundred in the Catalonia district after a van plowed through crowds traveling up to 60 mph
Jared was pronounced dead on Friday, when he and Heidi had planned to jet back home
‘We had no idea what was going on,’ she added. ‘So trying to figure out what was happening, trying to get back to the main road.’
Heidi grew concerned when she hadn’t heard from her husband.
‘I was looking for Jared the whole time. I kept wanting to go back to the main road (because I thought) that’s where he would have been.’
Jared, of Lafayette, California, was not initially listed as a victim in the hospitals nearby the attack.
He was pronounced dead on Friday, when he and Heidi had planned to jet back home.
‘He didn’t make it,’ Dan said in the interview. ‘We didn’t find out until (Friday) morning that his wife, Heidi, was called into the consulate, and she was shown pictures of his body,’ Dan said.
‘She confirmed it was him and now she’s on the way over to the morgue to make a real confirmation,’ he explained further.
Moussa Oukabir is the attack suspect in the Barcelona terror attack
Police are currently searching for the individual said to be operating the van
Heidi has not yet released a public comment on her husband’s death.
‘At present Jared’s wife Heidi is not issuing a statement and will issue a formal statement tomorrow,’ a source speaking on behalf of the family said.
‘For now, she asks that the community and media hold their family up in prayer and asks for the privacy during this difficult time.’
Terrorists responsible killed 14 people and wounded over a hundred in the Catalonia district after a van plowed through crowds traveling up to 60 mph.
ISIS has since accounted for the acts of terrorism, which mimics attacks in London, Berlin, Stockholm and Nice.
Police are currently searching for the individual said to be operating the van, 18-year-old Moussa Oukabir.