Trial for officer accused of failing to protect children during Uvalde shooting : NPR

Flowers and candles are placed around crosses to honor victims killed in a school shooting, May 28, 2022, outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Jae C. Hong/AP

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Jae C. Hong/AP

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — One of the first police officers to respond to the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting will go on trial Monday for failing to protect children during the attack as authorities waited more than an hour to confront the shooter.

Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde schools officer, faces 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in a rare prosecution of an officer accused of failing to do more to stop a crime and protect lives.

The teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

Nearly 400 state, local and federal law enforcement officers responded to the school, but 77 minutes passed between the arrival of authorities and the arrival of a tactical team that entered the classroom and killed the shooter, Salvador Ramos. An investigation later showed that Ramos was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the attack.

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 due to their slow response. Arredondo’s trial has not yet been scheduled.

The charges against Gonzales carry up to two years in prison if he is convicted. The trial, which is expected to last up to three weeks, begins with jury selection.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty. His attorney said Gonzales tried to save children that day.

Police and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially said quick law enforcement action killed Ramos and saved lives. But that version quickly came to light as families described begging police to enter the building and students called 911 for help.

The indictment alleges that Gonzales placed the children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by failing to follow his active shooter training. The allegations also say he did not move toward the gunfire despite hearing gunshots and being told where the shooter was.

State and federal reviews of the shooting have cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.

According to the state study, Gonzales told investigators that once police realized there were students still seated in other classrooms, he helped evacuate them.

Some victims’ family members said more officers should be charged.

“They all waited and let the children and teachers die,” said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the two teachers killed.

Prosecutors will likely have to set the bar high to secure a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school massacre.

Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson was accused of failing to confront the shooter during the attack. It was the first such prosecution in the United States for a campus shooting, and Peterson was acquitted by a jury in 2023.

At the request of Gonzales’ lawyers, the trial was moved about 200 miles southeast, to Corpus Christi. They argued that Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde, and prosecutors did not object.

Uvalde, a town of 15,000, still has several vivid memories of the shooting. Robb Elementary School is closed but still standing, and a memorial of 21 crosses and flowers sits near the school sign. Another memorial is on the fountain in the downtown square, and murals depicting several victims can still be seen on the walls of several buildings.

Jesse Rizo, whose 9-year-old niece Jackie was among the slain students, said that even a three-hour drive from Corpus Christi, the family would like someone to attend the trial every day.

“It’s important for the jury to see that Jackie had a large, strong family,” Rizo said.