The trial of a former school police officer accused of not doing enough to protect the children during the Uvalde school shooting began in Texas on Tuesday.
Adrian Gonzales, one of the first officers to respond to the 2022 shooting, faces 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment. Officers responding to the shooting were found to have waited more than an hour to confront the shooter, who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer Adrian Gonzales arrives at the courthouse on July 25, 2024, in Uvalde, Texas. Eric Gay / AP file
Members of the public and reporters flocked to the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi on Tuesday morning for the trial, where opening statements started at 9:30 a.m. local time. Judge Sid Harle is presiding over the high-profile trial.
In his opening statement, Prosecutor Bill Turner accused Gonzales of failing to distract, delay and impede the shooter while he waited for help to arrive.
Defense attorney Jason Goss maintained that Gonzales did the best he could with what he knew at the time, emphasizing that the former officer was navigating a fluid situation and attempting to asses who the gunman was and where the gunfire was coming from.
Addressing the jury, defense attorneys said the prosecution will attempt to play with their emotions to prove their point, including by showing graphic images of the shooting.
“You will not come out of this trial the same person in your heart,” Goss said. “It’s traumatic.”
Videos of the moments before the school shooting were shown in court. In one video, the shooter can be seen crashing his car near a funeral home before getting out and opening fire on two employees who had walked toward the scene. In another video, the shooter can be seen walking towards Robb Elementary.
The trial is expected to last about two weeks, according to Harle. A panel of 12 jurors and four alternates were selected on Monday after about 100 people were dismissed for saying they had already formed opinions on the trial.
A memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.Brandon Bell / Getty Images file
On May 24, 2022, around 400 officers from state and federal agencies responded to Robb Elementary after calls of an active shooter. About 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until a tactical team was able to get into the classroom and kill the shooter, identified later as Salvador Ramos.
The months after the shooting generated intense backlash to the law enforcement response, with many questioning why wasn’t more done to protect students and staff at the elementary school. Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo were among the first on the scene, and they are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.
Gonzales could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if he’s found guilty, NBC Dallas-Forth Worth reported.