CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — 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 opening minutes of what would become one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
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.
Flanked by his lawyers, Gonzales appeared to be fighting back tears after the verdict was read out in court.
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 if he had been convicted.
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.
At least 370 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’s families who had said they wanted more officers held accountable for the law enforcement response.
Gonzales had been charged with 29 counts of child abandonment and endangerment — each count representing the 19 students who were killed and 10 others who were injured.
During the trial, jurors heard a medical examiner describe the fatal wounds to the children, some of whom were shot more than a dozen times. Several parents of victims described sending their children to school for an awards ceremony and the panic that ensued as the attack unfolded.
Gonzales’ lawyers argued he arrived upon a chaotic scene of rifle shots echoing on school grounds and never saw the gunman before the attacker went inside the school. They also insisted that three other officers who arrived seconds later had a better chance to stop the gunman.
They argued to jurors that Gonzales risked his life when he joined a group of five officers who tried to reach the classroom before they were driven back by rifle fire. Defense attorneys also said Gonzales helped evacuate children from other classrooms before the gunman was killed.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo are the only two responding officers that day to face charges. Arredondo’s trial has not yet been set.
Gonzales’ trial was tightly focused on his actions in the early moments of the attack, but prosecutors also presented the graphic and emotional testimony as the result of police failures.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
Prosecutors faced a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018. A sheriff’s deputy was acquitted by a jury after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.