Testimony concluded Tuesday in the trial of Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde school police officer charged with failing to stop the gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers in the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. The case now goes to a jury in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Gonzales pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment and faces up to two years in prison if convicted. Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday before jury deliberations begin.
The trial represents a rare criminal charge against a police officer for failing to intervene during an active shooter attack. Only two of the more than 375 officers who responded to the school have faced criminal charges for the delayed response.
Closing Arguments Approach
The defense rested its case Tuesday after calling just two witnesses, including a police tactics expert. Gonzales did not testify in his own defense.
Prosecutors rested their case after nine days of testimony from 36 witnesses in a trial that began January 5. One defense witness was a woman who worked across the street from the school. She told jurors she saw the shooter ducking between cars and trying to stay out of view — testimony that could support Gonzales’ claim that he never saw the gunman.
Prosecutors presented graphic photos from inside the classrooms and brought body camera footage showing officers entering the school. Teachers described the moments when the gunman entered and killed students and staff.
Special prosecutor Bill Turner focused on the timeline of Gonzales’ response. “Every second counts in an active shooter situation,” Turner said Tuesday. “Every second, more victims can die if a police officer is standing and waiting.” Turner highlighted three minutes between when Gonzales first arrived at the school and when he entered the building.
The Defense Arguments
Gonzales has insisted he did not freeze in the chaotic early moments and never saw the gunman. His lawyers contend that three officers on the other side of the school saw the gunman still outside and did not fire a shot, questioning why Gonzales alone is charged with failing to act.
Body camera footage shows Gonzales among the first officers to enter a shadowy and smokey hallway trying to reach the killer in a classroom.
Teacher Arnulfo Reyes described seeing a “black shadow with a gun” enter the room before he was shot and all 11 of his students were killed. Other teachers described young students, some as young as second grade, grabbing safety scissors to attack the gunman if he came into their room.
The trial included dramatic courtroom moments. The sister of one of the teachers killed that day was removed from the courtroom after an angry outburst when one of the officers testified. Jurors heard recordings of gunshots and listened to a medical examiner describe the fatal wounds to the children. They also heard testimony from several parents of children who were killed or wounded in the attack.
Prosecution Setbacks and Precedent
The prosecution’s path has not been seamless. Inconsistent testimony from witnesses emerged during the nine days of evidence. At one point, prosecutors mistakenly showed a photo from inside the classroom that included text written in blood.
A teacher who was one of the early witnesses was dismissed from the trial after prosecutors failed to disclose before trial that she recalled seeing the gunman dressed in black approaching the school. The defense asked for a mistrial on the second day of trial but was denied. After prosecutors rested, defense lawyers asked the judge to determine that the state had not proved its case. That motion also was denied.
Gonzales was one of 376 federal, state and local officers who responded to Robb Elementary School during the attack on May 24, 2022. The gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, was 18 years old. It took more than an hour for a tactical team to breach a classroom and kill him.
Only Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo have been criminally charged in connection with the delayed response. The rarity of the charges against Gonzales underscores the unusual nature of the case — a prosecution focused on what a police officer did not do rather than what he did.