{"id":113793,"date":"2026-01-07T06:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113793\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:05:11","slug":"horror-of-school-attack-in-uvalde-texas-brings-tears-as-officer-faces-trial-over-police-response-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113793\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror of school attack in Uvalde, Texas, brings tears as officer faces trial over police response"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 Families whose loved ones died in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre<\/a> sobbed in court while listening to frantic 911 calls during the first day of testimony in the trial of a police officer accused of failing to protect the children by not doing enough to stop the attack.<\/p>\n

A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that former school officer Adrian Gonzales<\/a> arrived outside the school just before the teenage gunman went inside but didn\u2019t make a move to stop him even when a teacher pointed to where he was firing in a parking lot.<\/p>\n

The officer went into Robb Elementary only \u201cafter the damage had been done,\u201d special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements.<\/p>\n

The judge overseeing the case and attorneys warned jurors that the testimony and images will be emotional and difficult to process. Among those expected to testify will be some of the victims\u2019 families.<\/p>\n

Tissue boxes were brought to the families as the testimony began. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first calls for help. Their cries grew louder as the horror unfolded on the recordings.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys disputed that Gonzales \u2014 one of two officers charged in the 2022 attack \u2014 did nothing, saying he radioed for more help and evacuated children as other police arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,\u201d said defense attorney Nico LaHood. \u201cHe did what he could, with what he knew at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors focused sharply on Gonzales\u2019 steps in the minutes after the shooting began and as the first officers arrived. They did not address the hundreds of other local, state and federal officers who arrived and waited more than an hour<\/a> to confront the gunman, who was eventually killed by a tactical team of officers.<\/p>\n

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

Witness testimony will resume Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Students grabbed scissors to confront attacker<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys said Tuesday that Gonzales was focused on assessing where the gunman was while also thinking he was being fired on without protection against a high-powered rifle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a man waiting around. This isn\u2019t a man failing to act,\u201d defense attorney Jason Goss said.<\/p>\n

Gonzales and former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo\u2019s trial has not been scheduled.<\/p>\n

Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training, the special prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a child calls 911, we have a right to expect a response,\u201d Turner said, his voice trembling with emotion.<\/p>\n

As Gonzales waited outside, children and teachers hid inside darkened classrooms and grabbed scissors \u201cto confront a gunman,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThey did as they had been trained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Families question why more officers weren’t charged<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare for an officer to be criminally charged with not doing more to save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have stopped him, but he didn\u2019t want to be the target,\u201d said Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, who was among the 19 students and two teachers who were killed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged<\/a> given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.<\/p>\n

An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until they breached the classroom and killed Salvador Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety<\/a> leading up to the shooting.<\/p>\n

Reviews found many failures with police response<\/p>\n

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

The officer\u2019s attorneys told jurors that there was plenty of blame to go around \u2014 from the lack of security at the school to police policy \u2014 and that prosecutors will try to play on their emotions by showing photos from the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the prosecution wants you to do is get mad at Adrian. They are going to try to play on your emotions,\u201d Goss said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monster who hurt these children is dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. A Florida sheriff\u2019s deputy was acquitted by a jury<\/a> after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018<\/a> \u2014 the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Ingram in Corpus Christi, Texas; Juan A. Lozano in Houston; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.<\/p>\n

Valerie Gonzalez And Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 Families whose loved ones died in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre sobbed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2811,50202,155,50203,50206,6464,2455,50201,50204,27,29,28,4510,50205],"class_list":["post-113793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-adrian-gonzales","tag-bill-turner","tag-corpus-christi","tag-defense-attorneys","tag-evacuated-children","tag-federal-officers","tag-police-officer","tag-school-massacre","tag-special-prosecutor","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-uvalde","tag-witness-testimony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113793","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=113793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}