Bay Area man, honeymooning in Barcelona, killed in attack
A Lafayette man on a belated honeymoon with his wife of one year was identified Friday as one of the 13 people killed in the terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain.
On Friday, hours after Jared Tucker’s wife, Heidi Nunes-Tucker, identified his remains in the Spanish seaside city, his family struggled to reconcile with the odds of him being killed half a world away in a deliberate act apparently committed in the name of the Islamic State.
The U.S. State Department confirmed that one American was killed when a terrorist drove a van through a crowd of people in a tourist area Thursday, but it did not release the person’s name. More than 100 people were injured in Barcelona, and another victim was killed later in a related attack in a nearby town.
“I don’t know how to feel,” Tucker’s father, Dan Tucker, told reporters. “I’m not angry necessarily. But more importantly, I just don’t understand it. It’s hard to understand how anything like that could happen . ... What are
the chances (that the) one person in the whole United States being in Barcelona and being one of the (people)... fatally attacked by terrorists would be Jared?”
The 42-year-old was vacationing in Barcelona with his wife as a honeymoon and a celebration of their first wedding anniversary. It was Tucker’s first time in Europe, and he and his wife had spent a couple weeks exploring the Spanish city. The attack occurred on their last full day in Spain, before they were to return home Friday.
In photos the couple took, he is riding a brass lion in a city square and bobbing in the ocean with both hands reaching toward the sky.
In the last picture, taken hours before the attack, Tucker and his wife flash wide smiles as they lean into each other. They are dressed in short sleeves, dining al fresco at a restaurant, glasses of sangria on the table.
Later Thursday afternoon, they went to the popular Las Ramblas shopping district in the heart of Barcelona. NunesTucker, a schoolteacher, was perusing the many kiosks for trinkets when a van plowed into a crowd of people on the pedestrian walkway. Tucker had just left his wife’s side to use the restroom at a nearby restaurant, their relatives said. Nunes-Tucker was pushed over a kiosk and lost her husband in the ensuing chaos.
The Islamic State quickly took responsibility for the massacre.
“My mother is boarding a flight tonight to be with (Tucker’s) wife tomorrow,” Tucker’s nephew Paul Luke said in an online Reddit thread that was created Thursday to help find his uncle. It has since been taken down.
“Jared’s burial wishes were to be cremated, but that cannot be done until the investigations have finished,” Luke wrote. “My mother and his wife will be in Barcelona for an undetermined amount of time until final arrangements can be made.”
Luke posted photos on Reddit from a plaza in the Las Ramblas area after the attack showing a man wearing a blue shirt and khaki shorts, lying on the ground with blood on his head. Another photo posted by Luke showed Tucker wearing the same outfit about one hour before the attack.
In the aftermath, Nunes-Tucker visited area hospitals and the Red Cross in search of her husband, family members said.
Tucker’s family gathered at his home in Lafayette on Friday morning, comforting each other in their grief. A police officer was stationed outside.
They have launched a GoFundMe page to help cover funeral costs, living expenses and his three daughters’ educations.
“We loved Jared, we love you, and we are grateful that in this time of turmoil in this world we can still band together in a time of need and support each other,” the Tucker family said in a statement. “Pray for Jared and his family, pray for Barcelona, but most importantly pray that we can someday rid ourselves of the hate that takes our loved ones before their time.”
Tucker owned a company, Fiberglass Pool Resurfacing, with his father, which they founded in 1994. They resurface nearly 200 swimming pools a year, according to the company website.
He and Nunes-Tucker got married last year. Nunes-Tucker wore a sleek white gown and held pastel pink roses and white baby’s breath. In one photo, Tucker and her teenage son each kiss one of her cheeks. In another, she and Tucker walk up a staircase. They are caught in mid-laugh, both heads tilted to the left and seemingly unaware of the camera.
“To everyone who helped call, translate, find phone numbers, and physically visit hospitals I am grateful,” Luke wrote in an online post. “Amidst terrible sadness, the people of Barcelona came out in droves to help us.”