The trial of a Texas police officer for preventing law enforcement from responding to the attack at Robb Elementary School entered its second week Monday, with prosecutors continuing to stick to their argument that he did nothing to stop the gunman early on.
Adrian Gonzales, 52, a former Uvalde schools police officer, was one of the first officers on the scene as the gunman approached the school. Gonzalez has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child.
The attack on May 24, 2022 was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. 19 students and 2 teachers died.
The opening days of the trial featured dramatic replays of the original emergency call, testimony from teachers huddled with terrified students and the mother of one victim telling the story of how her daughter asked to leave school early that day.
The second week of the trial is likely to include testimony from police training experts and more victims’ family members. It’s unclear whether Gonzalez plans to testify in his own defense.
Trial focuses on one officer, not wider police response
Gonzalez was one of the first more than 370 federal, state and local officials to arrive at the school. It took the tactical team more than an hour to enter the classroom and kill the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
The trial focused on Gonzalez’s actions. Prosecutors said he abandoned active-shooter training and made no attempt to engage or distract the shooter outside the school. Minutes later, he failed again when a group of police entered the school, but retreated under heavy gunfire, they said.
Prosecutors documented how students made 911 calls with the gunman in the classroom.
“When a child calls 911, we have the right to expect a response,” Special Prosecutor Bill Turner said in his opening statement.
Gonzalez’s attorney said he never saw the shooter outside the school. They also said Gonzalez helped students evacuate from other classrooms and noted how the gunman was able to quickly enter the classroom through an unlocked door.
A mother, teacher and photos recount the horror of the day
Jennifer Garcia told jurors that her 9-year-old daughter, Eliahna Garcia, asked to leave school early after the ceremony. But the family has given her teacher a little money to fund a class pizza and movie party.
“She wanted to go home,” Garcia said, fighting back tears. “I told her, ‘No… stay in school.'”
The family was among the last to learn of their daughter’s death that night.
Several of Robb’s teachers and a staff member described the fear of seeing the gunman approaching and hearing staccato gunfire. They described training in response to a shooting: lock classroom doors, turn off lights and tell children to be quiet.
“I told them I loved them,” said teacher Lynn Deming, who was injured by shrapnel when his classroom window was shot. “I want to tell them it’s okay, but I’m not sure. I want to make sure the last thing they hear is that someone loves them.”
Jurors also saw photos of the classroom showing large amounts of blood and the dead gunman. A medical examiner described the injuries to the children and noted that several of them had been shot at least a dozen times.
Track bullet trails outside schools
Prosecutors focused on the traces of bullets and shell casings left behind when the gunman opened fire outside the school. They hope to show the jury that Gonzalez should have been close enough to the shooter to see him fire and confront him early on.
Prosecutors suffered a setback when the first teacher’s testimony was dismissed by a judge. She described running from the playground with her children and seeing a gunman dressed in black holding a rifle, sending a puff of smoke from the bullets into the dirt as he fired.
The defense attorney complained that her detailed description of the gunman — which would help locate him near Gonzales — was new evidence that had not been disclosed before the trial. Judge Sid Haller denied their request for a mistrial but instructed the jury to ignore her testimony.
Rare prosecution of police officers
The trial is a rare case in which a police officer could be convicted of allegedly failing to act to stop crime and protect life.
Gonzalez and former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo were the only two officers to face charges that day. Arredondo’s trial has not yet been set.
Prosecutors may face a high threshold for conviction. A Florida sheriff’s deputy accused of failing to confront the gunman in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting was acquitted by a jury in the first such indictment in a U.S. school shooting.