Bay Area man celebrating his honeymoon was killed in Barcelona terror attack

A Northern California man was one of the 13 people killed in Thursday’s terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, family members confirmed.

The father of Jared Tucker, a 42-year-old Lafayette resident, told KGO-TV that his son’s wife had tentatively identified his remains.

Tucker and his wife, Heidi Nunes, were vacationing in Europe on their honeymoon, said his father, Dan Tucker. The couple married a year ago and had delayed their honeymoon, he told the station. Jared Tucker had three daughters, his father said.

Dan Tucker, interviewed by KNTV-TV, said he wasn’t angry over his son’s death but was struggling to grasp the randomness of the tragedy.

“It’s just hard to understand how anything like that could happen,” he told the station. “What’s really bizarre is — what are the chances of one person in the whole United States being in Barcelona and being involved out of the 13 people that were fatally attacked by the terrorists would be Jared?”

On Thursday, the couple visited Las Ramblas, a pedestrian walkway popular with tourists in the heart of the Spanish city, Nunes, 40, told NBC News. They had drinks in an outside restaurant and briefly separated, she told the station.

Nunes told her husband she wanted to look at some jewelry, so Tucker headed to the restroom, she said.

That’s when a white van jumped the curb onto the walkway and sped down the center of Las Ramblas, hitting crowds of people.

Barcelona police said 13 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the attack. The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Nunes told NBC that, during the attack, she was pushed into a souvenir shop by crowds of screaming people running from the area.

“They were walking through downtown when he stopped to use the restroom. Moments later, all hell broke loose and Heidi was swept up in the terrified crowd and she lost sight of Jared,” Nunes’ brother-in-law, Kalani Kalanui, told KGO.

The State Department announced Friday that one American was killed and another was injured in the attack. It did not identify the victims.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and his friends,” Heather Nauert, a department spokeswoman, said of the dead American in a video statement.

Nunes told the station she had seen a photograph of someone coming to the aid of her husband.

On Friday, Tucker’s niece, Carissa Steinburg, said on Facebook that her family found the man who was with him after the attack.

“Thank you so much for your help with that, and we do plan on thanking him for trying to save him,” she wrote.

Steinburg asked that donations be made to a GoFundMe account to help Tucker’s family.

“You never in a million years think terrorism will hurt your family,” she wrote. “His soul mate, his daughters, and loving family are left behind in this terrible tragedy.”

In a separate statement on GoFundMe, Steinburg recalled that, as a child, she called Tucker Uncle BoBo, and had thought that was his name. As a teen, she learned his real name.

“I honest to God thought that was your real name,” she said. “Thank you for your smile, humor, and laugh that will forever be remembered.”

Tucker and his father operated a swimming pool-resurfacing business in Martinez, Calif. Nunes is a sixth-grade teacher at El Sobrante Christian School in El Sobrante, Calif.

“I know how loved Mrs. Nunes-Tucker is, and while we cannot be with her physically to pray with her, I trust that God will provide comfort and peace that ‘transcends all understanding’ to Mrs. Nunes-Tucker during this difficult time,” the school said in a statement on Facebook.

The violence on Las Ramblas is believed to be linked to a similar attack in Cambrils, a coastal community south of Barcelona, and a deadly home explosion in Alcanar, farther down the coast. In Cambrils, five suspects were killed. Six civilians were injured and one died, police said.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA

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UPDATES:

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Carissa Steinburg.

12:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Dan Tucker and El Sobrante Christian School.

11:50 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from a State Department spokeswoman.

This article was originally published at 11:15 p.m.