{"id":113098,"date":"2026-01-06T19:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113098\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:31:17","slug":"uvalde-school-shooting-trial-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113098\/","title":{"rendered":"Uvalde school shooting trial begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A former school police officer in Uvalde, Texas, who was part of the slow law enforcement response to one of the\u00a0worst school shootings<\/a>\u00a0in U.S. history went on trial Monday on charges that he failed to protect children from the gunman.<\/p>\n

Adrian Gonzales<\/a>, one of the first officers to respond to the 2022 attack, is charged with 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in a rare prosecution of an officer accused of not doing more to save lives. Authorities\u00a0waited more than an hour<\/a>\u00a0to confront the teenage shooter who\u00a0killed 19 students and two teachers<\/a>\u00a0at Robb Elementary.<\/p>\n

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney has said the officer tried to save children that day.<\/p>\n

Jury selection began Monday at a Texas courthouse where a long line of prospective jurors stretched outside the building before the proceedings got underway.<\/p>\n

Potential jurors were given a list of questions asking what they knew about the law enforcement response and their impressions of what happened, as well as whether they contributed money to Uvalde victims.<\/p>\n

Judge Sid Harle told several hundred potential jurors that the court was not looking for jurors who know nothing about the shooting but wants those who can be impartial. The trial was expected to last about two weeks, he said.<\/p>\n

Among the potential witnesses are FBI agents, rangers with the Texas Department of Public Safety, school employees and family members of the victims.<\/p>\n

Nearly 400 officers from state, local and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the school, but 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until a tactical team breached the classroom and killed the shooter, Salvador Ramos. An investigation later showed that Ramos was\u00a0obsessed with violence and notoriety<\/a>\u00a0in the months leading up to the attack.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The charges against Gonzales carry up to two years in prison if he is convicted.<\/p>\n

Police and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially said swift law enforcement action killed Ramos and saved lives. But that version quickly unraveled as families described\u00a0begging police to go into the building<\/a>\u00a0and 911 calls emerged from students pleading for help.<\/p>\n

The indictment alleges Gonzales placed children in \u201cimminent danger\u201d of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his active shooter training. The allegations also say he did not advance toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told where the shooter was.<\/p>\n

State and federal reviews of the shooting cited\u00a0cascading problems<\/a>\u00a0in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.<\/p>\n

According to the state review, Gonzales told investigators that once police realized there were students still sitting in other classrooms, he helped evacuate them.<\/p>\n

Some family members of the victims have said\u00a0more officers should be indicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all waited and allowed children and teachers to die,\u201d said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the two teachers who were killed.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors will likely face a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the\u00a0Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sheriff\u2019s deputy Scot Peterson was charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack. It was the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting, and Peterson was\u00a0acquitted<\/a>\u00a0by a jury in 2023.<\/p>\n

At the request of Gonzales’ attorneys, the trial was moved about 200 miles southeast to Corpus Christi. They argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde, and prosecutors did not object.<\/p>\n

Uvalde, a town of 15,000, still has several prominent reminders of the shooting. Robb Elementary is closed but still stands, and a memorial of 21 crosses and flower sits near the school sign. Murals depicting several victims can still be seen on the walls of several buildings.<\/p>\n

Jesse Rizo, whose 9-year-old niece Jackie was one of the students killed, said even with a three-hour drive to Corpus Christi, the family would like to have someone attend the trial every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the jury see that Jackie had a big, strong family,\u201d Rizo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A former school police officer in Uvalde, Texas, who was part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1061,557,132,155,157,156,102,223,1225,82,27,50011,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-113098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-corpus-christi","12":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","13":"tag-corpus-christi-news","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-public-safety","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-uvalde-shooting","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}