{"id":132395,"date":"2026-01-21T20:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/132395\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:39:12","slug":"jury-deliberating-case-of-former-uvalde-officer-charged-over-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/132395\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury deliberating case of former Uvalde officer charged over response"},"content":{"rendered":"

By VALERIE GONZALEZ and JIM VERTUNO<\/p>\n

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Texas prosecutor urged a jury Wednesday to convict one of the first police officers on the scene of the deadly\u00a0Robb Elementary School attack<\/a>\u00a0in Uvalde and send a message that law enforcement must\u00a0fulfill their duty<\/a>\u00a0to protect when a gunman threatens children.<\/p>\n

Adrian Gonzales<\/a>, a former Uvalde schools officer, is the first officer to stand trial over\u00a0the hesitant police response<\/a>\u00a0to the 2022 massacre, when a teenage gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

The trial is a rare case of a police officer charged with failing to stop a criminal act to protect lives.<\/p>\n

Gonzales, 52, sat at the defense table during closing arguments as special prosecutor Bill Turner told jurors the 10-year police veteran had a duty to act even if it meant entering the building alone.<\/p>\n

Sitting behind Gonzales in the courtroom were family members of several of the victims. Some cried when the names of the children killed and wounded that day were read out loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expected to act differently when talking about a child that can\u2019t defend themselves,\u201d Turner said. \u201cIf you have a duty to act, you can\u2019t stand by while a child is in imminent danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

As jurors, Turner said, their verdict will set the bar over whether \u201cit\u2019s appropriate to stand outside, hearing 100 shots, while children are being slaughtered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury began its deliberations after listening to a little over two hours of closing statements from prosecutors and defense lawyers.<\/p>\n

Jason Goss, an attorney for Gonzales, began his closing statements by telling jurors his client was not responsible for the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monster that hurt those kids is dead,\u201d Goss said. \u201cIt is one of the worst things that ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goss said a conviction would tell police they have to be \u201cperfect\u201d when responding to a crisis and could make them even more hesitant in the future.<\/p>\n

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment for the 19 students killed and 10 others who were wounded. Gonzales faces up to two years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

\"Defense<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Nico LaHood cross-examines the prosecution\u2019s witness Nick Hill, a Texas Ranger lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety, during the 10th day of the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Sam Owens\/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)\n<\/p>\n

\"Javier<\/p>\n

Javier Cazares listens to testimony during the 10th day of the trial of former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. Cazares is the father of Robb Elementary shooting victim Jackie Cazares, one of the 19 children killed by an 18-year-old gunman. (Sam Owens\/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)\n<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police officers escort Velma Lisa Duran of the courtroom as she yells at witness Joe Vasquez, a Zavala County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputy, during a trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. Duran\u2019s sister Irma Garcia was one of two teachers who were killed in the Robb Elementary mass shooting. (Sam Owens\/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Nico LaHood cross-examines the prosecution\u2019s witness Nick Hill, a Texas Ranger lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety, during the 10th day of the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Sam Owens\/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a>
\nTrial is in its third week<\/p>\n

Gonzales did not take the stand in his own defense. He has insisted he didn\u2019t freeze in the chaotic early moments and never saw the gunman, and his lawyers argue that three officers on the other side of the school saw the gunman still outside and didn\u2019t fire a shot.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage shows Gonzales being among the first group of officers to enter a shadowy and smoky hallway trying to reach the killer in a classroom.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the portrayal of a reluctant officer officer, Gonzales risked his life when he went into a \u201challway of death\u201d where others were unwilling to go in the early moments, his lawyers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are trying to feed you a coward sandwich and telling you Adrian is the one who gave it to you,\u201d defense attorney Nico LaHood told jurors.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors called 36 witnesses over nine days in a trial that began Jan. 5. Gonzales\u2019 attorneys presented just two witnesses, starting with a woman who worked across the street from the school and who told jurors she saw the shooter ducking between cars and trying to stay out of view \u2014 testimony that could reinforce Gonzales\u2019 claims that he never saw the gunman.<\/p>\n

Jurors heard emotional testimony from teachers who recounted the terrifying moments when the 18-year-old gunman entered the school. Prosecutors have presented graphic photos from inside the classrooms and questioned officers who described the chaos of the response.<\/p>\n

Case moved out of Uvalde to get a fair trial<\/p>\n

The trial was moved hundreds of miles to Corpus Christi after defense attorneys argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde. Still, some victims\u2019 families have made the long drive to watch the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Early in the trial, the sister of one of the teachers killed that day was removed from the courtroom after an angry outburst following one officer\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Gonzales, who had led an active shooter response training course two months before the shooting, abandoned his training and did not try to stop gunman Salvador Ramos before he entered the school.<\/p>\n

Teacher Arnulfo Reyes described seeing\u00a0a \u201cblack shadow with a gun\u201d<\/a>\u00a0enter the room before he was shot and all 11 of his students were killed. Other teachers described students, some as young as second grade, grabbing safety scissors to attack the gunman if he came into their room.<\/p>\n

Teachers and children followed their school shooting training, Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell told jurors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to continue to teach children to rehearse their own death and not hold (police) to the training that\u2019s mandated by state law,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

Gonzales was one of 376 federal, state and local officers swarmed to the school as the attack unfolded. It would take more than an hour for a tactical team to breach a classroom and kill the gunman.<\/p>\n

Only Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo have been criminally charged for the delayed response. Arredondo was indicted on similar charges on the same day as Gonzales in 2024, but his trial has not yet been set.<\/p>\n

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By VALERIE GONZALEZ and JIM VERTUNO CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Texas prosecutor urged a jury Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[47662,155,157,156,50011],"class_list":{"0":"post-132395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-adrian-gonzalez","9":"tag-corpus-christi","10":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","11":"tag-corpus-christi-news","12":"tag-uvalde-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132395","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=132395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}