A Texas man who led a group of “Freedom Defenders” against mask restrictions died of COVID-19 on Saturday at age 30.
Caleb Wallace left behind three children and a pregnant wife.
His wife, Jessica, announced her husband’s death on a GoFundMe page that had detailed his fight with COVID-19 the past few weeks.
“Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds,” she wrote.
Wallace had been unconscious since Aug. 8, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported.
He lived in San Angelo, about 200 miles northwest of Austin and 90 miles south of Abilene.
Wallace helped organize “The Freedom Rally” on July 4, 2020 — a gathering described in a flyer as a peaceful protest by people “sick of the government being in control of our lives,” the Standard-Times reported.
He also founded “The San Angelo Freedom Defenders,” a group “to educate and empower citizens to make informed choices concerning local, statewide, and national policy and to encourage them to actively participate in their duty to secure God-given and constitutionally protected rights,” the group’s Facebook page stated.
Jessica Wallace said her husband got sick in late July, but “was so hard-headed.”
“He didn’t want to see a doctor, because he didn’t want to be part of the statistics with COVID tests,” she said.
He then tried unproven ivermectin — a livestock dewormer that has been denounced by the FDA — high doses of vitamin C, zinc aspirin and an inhaler, the Standard-Times reported.
Jessica Wallace told the newspaper she didn’t always share her husband’s views and that she wears a mask.
