Jury refuses to convict Uvalde school officer targeted in school shooting case
After weeks of testimony, jury deliberations and even a key witness changing her testimony mid-trial, the trial of a former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer has ended. The jury found Adrian Gonzales not guilty, acquitting him of all 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment.
Prosecutors alleged Gonzales failed to protect the children inside a classroom of Robb Elementary School in May 2022 when a gunman opened fire in that class, killing 19 students and two teachers.
Gonzales’ defense team said he took appropriate actions given what he knew at the time. They say he didn’t know where the shooter was and helped evacuate students, showing he was actively responding to the situation.
What happened during the trial?
The trial began on Jan. 5, with prosecutors accusing Gonzales of failing to protect the students inside the classroom. They said Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo were among the first officers to respond to the shooting.
Prosecutors said Gonzales didn’t try to engage or distract the shooter even after a teacher pointed out the direction of the gunman. Gonzales only went into the classroom “after the damage had been done,” prosecutors alleged.
The defense team disputed this, saying Gonzales called for more help and began evacuating children as other officers arrived.
“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” defense attorney Nico LaHood said, according to The Associated Press. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
Gonzales’ defense team stated that the two officers began to take fire from the shooter when they got to the school and weren’t wearing body armor that protected against higher-powered ammunition.
During the first week of the trial, a former Uvalde teacher testified that she saw the shooter in the same area where Gonzales was located. The defense objected, arguing that the teacher’s testimony differed from what she told state investigators in 2022.
The judge dismissed the jury for two days while attorneys prepared arguments on motions related to the testimony, Texas Public Radio reported. Because of the change in testimony, the defense team moved for a mistrial but the judge later denied it.
During the fifth day of the trial, teacher Arnulfo Reyes testified in court that he saw the shooter enter the room and start firing. The gunman shot Reyes twice.
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Reyes told the court that after the gunman shot him, Reyes fell to the ground and prayed, saying he “waited for everything to be over,” the AP reports.
He testified that when the gunman walked into an adjoining class, he heard a student say, “Officer, we’re in here,” before he heard more gunshots. None of Reyes’ students survived.
At the end of the second week of the trial, prosecutors used a 3D animation to show the approximate location of the gunman and law enforcement, according to local news affiliate KSAT.
State investigators from the Texas Rangers created the animation, which showed how the gunman entered the building and how law enforcement responded. Gonzales’ attorneys made note of several details they believed should have been in the animation.
Why did the state only prosecute two officers?
Prosecutors only charged two people with the crimes connected to the response to the Robb Elementary School shooting, Gonzales and Arredondo, despite hundreds of other local, state and federal officers being at the scene.
Authorities alleged Gonzales didn’t run toward the sounds of gunshots, even after a teacher pointed out where the shots were coming from, despite training he had received on responding to active shooters in schools.
In Arredondo’s case, prosecutors said he was charged since he led the response team and failed to tell officers to enter the classroom and neutralize the gunman.
Many victims’ families were outraged over the police response to the shooting, saying delays in confronting the shooter allowed him to kill more victims. Some families have said more officers should be charged.
Charging a police officer with allegedly failing to stop a crime is rare, but it has happened before. After the 2020 murder of George Floyd, officers who witnessed the murder were charged with failing to intervene. That case, however, involved a crime being committed by a fellow law enforcement officer.
Arrendondo has said the state is using him and Gonzales as scapegoats after the community was upset over how police, including state and federal officials, responded to the shooting.
“I’ve been scapegoated from the very beginning,” Arredondo told CNN during an interview.
He also said state police should’ve taken over once they arrived at the school, and he didn’t believe he did anything wrong. His statements follow state and federal reports that found “cascading failures” in training and leadership.
Arredondo is facing 10 counts of abandoning or endangering a child, the same crime prosecutors charged Gonzales with. A judge has not set a trial date for Arredondo.
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