CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A former police officer was acquitted Wednesday evening of charges he failed in his duties to confront the gunman at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school during the critical first minutes of what would become one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
Jurors deliberated for more than seven hours before finding former Uvalde schools police officer Adrian Gonzalez, 52, not guilty in the first trial over the hesitant law enforcement response to the attack that killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.<\/p>\n
Flanked by his lawyers, Gonzales appeared to be fighting back tears after the verdict was read out.<\/p>\n
The trial was a rare case in the U.S. of an officer facing criminal charges on accusations of failing to stop a crime and protect lives. Gonzales had faced up to two years in prison.<\/p>\n
The nearly three-week trial included emotional testimony from teachers who were shot and survived. Prosecutors had argued in laying out their case that Gonzales abandoned his training and did nothing to stop or interrupt the teenage gunman before he entered the school.<\/p>\n
Nearly 400 law enforcement officers ultimately rushed to the school, where 77 minutes passed before a tactical team finally entered the classroom to confront and kill the gunman. Gonzales was one of just two officers indicted, angering some victim\u2019s families who have wanted more officers held accountable.<\/p>\n
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the trial of one of the first police officers on the scene of the Robb Elementary School attack in Uvalde, Texas, and prosecutors urged a conviction to send a message that law enforcement must fulfill their duty to protect when a gunman threatens children.<\/p>\n
Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde schools officer, is the first officer to stand trial over the hesitant police response to 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
\u201cThis is a failure to act case,” special prosecutor Bill Turner told jurors in closing statements.<\/p>\n
Gonzales, he said, had a duty to act even if it meant entering the building alone to face the gunman.<\/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
Gonzales, 52, sat at the defense table during more than two hours of closing statements from prosecutors and defense lawyers. Behind him 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
As jurors, Turner said, their verdict will set the bar over whether “it\u2019s appropriate to stand outside, hearing 100 shots, while children are being slaughtered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzales’ attorney, Jason Goss, opened his statement by telling jurors his client was not responsible for the attack.<\/p>\n
“The monster that hurt those kids is dead,” Goss said. “It is one of the worst things that ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, Goss said.<\/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
\t\t\t\t\t\tTrial is in its third week<\/p>\n
Gonzales did not take the stand in his own defense. Prosecutors said he was the first officer on the scene.<\/p>\n
Gonazles 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” where others were unwilling to go in the early moments, his lawyers said.<\/p>\n
“They 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
\t\t\t\t\t\tCase 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’ 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’s 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 a \u201cblack shadow with a gun\u201d enter 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
The 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
___<\/p>\n
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) \u2014 A former police officer was acquitted Wednesday evening of charges he failed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42875,25381,557,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-133232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-ap-education","tag-ap-u-s-news","tag-associated-press","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133232","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=133232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}