A mother’s grief becomes a movement after the loss of Matt Garcia

In sixth grade, Matt Garcia declared his intent to change the world. He didn't take long to make his mark: In 2007, at the age of 21, he was recognised as the youngest ever city council member in his hometown of Fairfield, Calif., and among the youngest in the state's history.

Just ten months later, at 22, he was tragically shot in the head in what was described by officials as a mistaken identity shooting.

The incident occurred while he was conversing with a friend in her driveway on the evening of Sept. 1, 2008.

A debt of $50 related to drugs led to the shooting involving Henry Don Williams, an ex-convict, auto technician Gene Combs, and Nicole Stewart, who was pregnant at the time. Garcia's mother cannot forget this fact.

"I will always know how old her son is,” Teresa Courtmanche recalls about the woman who drove the perpetrators to the location. “Two weeks after they killed Matt, Gene [tried to turn] them in.”

Eventually, Williams and Combs were detained and punished for the crime. Combs mistakenly identified Garcia to Williams as the person who took his money in a botched drug transaction. (Stewart was not charged and testified against the duo.)

In 2016, Courtmanche, at 59, visited Combs at Soledad Prison to inquire why he unjustly accused her son.

“I was sobbing and he was sobbing and he said, ‘I just wanted to get my dope,’ “ Courtmanche remembers.

Combs mentioned to her that on the shooting day he was supposed to attend his son’s birthday at a water park, regretting not attending instead.

Her reply?

"I said, 'I wish you were at your son’s birthday party too, because mine would still be here,' ” Courtmanche shares.

Following Garcia’s passing, his parents, stepfather Raymond Courtemanche, mother Teresa, and their daughters Briana, now 37, and 32-year-old Tearae, mourned and sprang into action.

They were determined to carry on Garcia’s mission of impacting others positively. His organ donations saved several lives: A kidney was given to a classmate, and a woman later wrote to Teresa, sharing she had received his lungs.

“I just want you to know I’m Buddhist,” she wrote to the Courtemanches. “When I got to Temple, your son and I breathe together.”

By the end of 2008, eager to further their son's legacy, the Courtemanches founded the Matt Garcia Foundation.

The charity advocates for organ donation, gun buyback initiatives, and addresses youth homelessness and human trafficking.

More crucially, it enlists volunteers for art events, food distribution, and town beautification efforts, supported by an annual golf event.

Recently, the family was awarded the CBS News Bay Area Icon Award for their philanthropic work.

“This could have destroyed us,” Garcia’s mom reflects. “I think [starting the foundation] had so much to do with Matt just being who he was and us not allowing that to just die with him.”

Before his untimely death, Garcia rose from humble beginnings to become a beloved city councilman.

He was passionately committed to driving change in his area, his mom notes.

“He would always say, 'I just want everybody to know that young people do care,' ” Teresa recounts, quoting her son saying: “They care about what happens here, and if you don’t have places for kids to go, you’re going to have more crime.”

Nearly twenty years on, Teresa mentions, individuals still approach to share memories of Garcia.

For instance, following a holiday tree lighting last month, the family dined out and a man approached, saying, “I just have to tell you, I’m a coach because Matt was my coach for baseball.”

Grief can be paralysing, Teresa acknowledges. Yet, weekly, she jots down a gratitude list.

Always at the top is one certainty: being thankful for having a son like Matt Garcia.

“I could just lay down and be devastated for the rest of my life, or I can be grateful for the 22 years we had with him,” she says.

“It’s humbled me that joy and pain can coexist, that I can choose to live out Matt’s legacy and watch it ripple.”