Trial begins for officer charged in delayed Uvalde response

A trial is set to begin Monday for a former Uvalde school police officer, Adrian Gonzales, who is charged in connection with the delayed law-enforcement response to the 2022 Robb Elementary school shooting in Texas.

The case centers on allegations that police waited more than an hour to confront the teenage gunman while children and teachers lay dead or wounded in classrooms. The proceeding is expected to offer one of the final opportunities to see police answer in court for the long delay, particularly as the families of victims have sought accountability through other legal routes.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Gonzales ignored his training for an active shooter and failed to act in a way that could have helped save lives. Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, has argued that Gonzales was focused on helping children escape the building.

What prosecutors allege

According to the indictment described in the report, Gonzales placed children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the gunman and by not following his active shooter training.

The indictment also said Gonzales did not advance toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told where the shooter was, allegations framed in the context of the attack that killed students and staff in classrooms inside the school.

The reporting said Gonzales was among the first officers in the building, according to a report by state lawmakers that the story cites. The account describes that officers retreated without firing a shot after Ramos shot at them.

Gonzales’ defense and attorney’s comments

Gonzales’ defense disputes the characterization of his actions during the critical period. The story said Gonzales told investigators later that he helped break windows to remove students from other classrooms.

“He was focused on getting children out of that building,” Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, said. LaHood also said, “He knows where his heart was and what he tried to do for those children.”

The trial was moved from Uvalde to Corpus Christi, about 200 miles away, after defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed a change of venue would be the best way to find an impartial jury.

Charges among a small number of officers

Families of victims have sought criminal accountability for years after the delay and initial official narratives changed as new accounts emerged.

The story said only two of the 376 officers from local, state and federal agencies on the scene have been charged. It also said the charges reflect the dead and wounded children but not the deaths of some individuals whose relatives have argued they were also part of the broader failure.

Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the teachers killed, questioned the charging decisions after seeing indictments filed against only a small subset of those present. “What about the other 374?” Duran asked.

Families describe the human toll

The report described the shooting’s outcome in stark terms: 19 children and two teachers were killed, and rescuers reached the most critically injured children only after a long delay.

Jesse Rizo’s niece, Jackie Cazares, was among the children. The story said Rizo described Cazares as still having a pulse when rescuers finally reached her. “It really bothers us a lot that maybe she could have lived,” he said.

The legal fight for accountability has played out alongside ongoing grief and lobbying after families said that initial law enforcement accounts did not match what students and parents later described.

Wider context and earlier prosecutions

Police and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially said swift law enforcement action killed the gunman and saved lives, according to the reporting, but that version unraveled as accounts emerged from families who said they begged officers to go into the building and as 911 calls surfaced.

The story said 77 minutes passed from the time officers first arrived until a tactical team breached a classroom and killed Salvador Ramos.

Prosecutors are expected to face a high bar in seeking convictions, the report said, citing juries’ reluctance to convict law enforcement officers for inaction. It compared the case to the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018, where Sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson was charged with failing to confront the shooter and was acquitted by a jury in 2023.

Another charged officer

The report said the only other charged officer is former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, with a trial on similar charges not yet set.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment on the indictments or whether a grand jury considered charging other officers, the report said.

In Uvalde, the story said the Robb Elementary building stands empty, with memorials in front of the school and elsewhere in town, as murals honoring victims cover buildings around the community.

Craig Garnett, owner and publisher of the Uvalde Leader-News, said people who were not directly affected by the attack have found it “pretty easy to move forward.” Garnett also said, “The community was terribly divided in the aftermath,” arguing that holding the trial in Uvalde would have risked inflaming tensions.

Some parents pursued political office after the shooting. Javier Cazares, Jackie’s father, ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for the Uvalde County Commission as a write-in candidate on a platform calling for more rigorous police training, and Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed, made a bid for mayor in 2023 but lost.

Jesse Rizo said many Uvalde residents have moved on from May 24, 2022, adding, “It angers me and frustrates me.”

Push for justice beyond the courtroom

Beyond prosecutions, the report said families pursued federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement agencies and also against other parties, including a gun manufacturer, a video game company, and Meta, over the shooting, with those cases still pending.

The story said families reached a $2 million settlement with the city that promised higher standards and better training for police. It also said lawmakers passed the Uvalde Strong Act earlier this year, setting new requirements for active shooter training and shooting response plans for police and schools.

Duran argued that the conviction of a single officer would not bring broad justice. “The only justice is going to be when they take their final breath,” she said. “And then God will judge them.”