Former Uvalde Officer Found Not Guilty for Response to School Shooting

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — A jury on Wednesday acquitted a former Uvalde school police officer in the first criminal trial stemming from the hesitant law enforcement response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, a rare prosecution that tested whether officers can be held criminally liable for failing to confront a gunman.

Jurors deliberated more than seven hours before finding Adrian Gonzales, 52, not guilty of charges that he abandoned his duty during the opening minutes of the attack that killed 19 children and two teachers on May 24, 2022. Gonzales, flanked by his attorneys, appeared to fight back tears as the verdict was read.

Gonzales faced up to two years in prison on 29 counts of child abandonment and endangerment, one for each child killed and for 10 others who were injured. Prosecutors argued he failed to follow his training and did nothing to stop or interrupt the teenage gunman before the attacker entered the school.

Defense attorneys countered that Gonzales arrived to a chaotic scene with rifle shots echoing across the campus, never saw the gunman before he went inside and was not the officer best positioned to stop the attack. They said Gonzales risked his life when he joined other officers who tried to reach the classroom but were driven back by gunfire, and that he later helped evacuate children from other rooms.

The nearly three-week trial featured emotional testimony, including from wounded teachers and a medical examiner who described fatal injuries to children, some shot more than a dozen times. Parents recounted sending their children to school for an awards ceremony and the panic as the attack unfolded.

At least 370 officers ultimately responded to the school, where 77 minutes passed before a tactical team entered the classroom and killed the gunman. Gonzales is one of only two officers indicted; the other is former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, whose trial has not been set.

The case underscored the difficulty of prosecuting officers for inaction. Juries have often been reluctant to convict in such cases, including after the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, where a sheriff’s deputy was acquitted on similar charges.

State and federal reviews of the Uvalde shooting cited cascading failures in training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long to confront the gunman.