A Texas jury acquitted a former Uvalde school police officer who was on trial for allegedly failing to act during the massacre at Robb Elementary School in 2022 that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The jury returned its verdict on Wednesday, around 7:15 p.m. on 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment after 7 hours, 6 minutes and 30 seconds of deliberation. Adrian Gonzales faced up to two years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged the 52-year-old Gonzales, a 10-year police veteran 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. Over more than two weeks of testimony, prosecutors called witnesses who recounted the horrors of the massacre and showed photographs of the scene, many of them graphic.
The trial was held in Corpus Christi at the request of Gonzales’s attorneys, who argued he could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
During closing arguments on Wednesday morning, a prosecutor urged the jury to convict in order to send a message that law enforcement must fulfill their duty to protect when a gunman threatens children.
Gonzales did not take the stand in his own defense. He has insisted he didn’t 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’t fire a shot.
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.
Contrary to the portrayal of a reluctant officer, Gonzales risked his life when he went into a “hallway of death” where others were unwilling to go in the early moments, his lawyers said.
Jason Goss, an attorney for Gonzales, said a conviction would tell police they have to be “perfect” when responding to a crisis and could make them even more hesitant in the future.
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 slow response. Arredondo’s trial has not yet been scheduled.
