CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Families of students killed in the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre are among those who could testify at the trial of a police officer who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response and is charged with failing to protect children from the teenage gunman.
Opening statements were set to begin Tuesday in what is a rare case of charges being brought against an officer who is accused of not doing more to save lives. Authorities waited more than an hour to confront the shooter.
Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde schools officer who was among the first to respond to what was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, has pleaded not guilty. His attorney has said the officer tried to save children that day.
Gonzales faces 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if he’s convicted.
He and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.
Some families of the victims were upset that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the 2022 attack.
Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway. A tactical team of officers eventually went into the classroom and killed the shooter.
The gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary.
An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until the tactical team breached the classroom and killed Salvador Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the shooting.
The trial for Gonzales was expected to last about two weeks, Judge Sid Harle said. Before seating the jury Monday, he told several hundred potential jurors that the court was not looking for those who know nothing about the shooting but wants jurors who can be impartial.
Among the potential witnesses are FBI agents, Texas Rangers, emergency dispatchers and school employees.
At the request of Gonzales’ attorneys, the trial was moved to Corpus Christi after they argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
The indictment accuses Gonzales of putting children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his training. The allegations also say he did not go toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told the shooter’s location.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
According to the state review, Gonzales told investigators that once police realized there were students still sitting in other classrooms, he helped evacuate them.
Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018.
Sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson was charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack. It was the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting, and Peterson was acquitted by a jury in 2023.
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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, Juan A. Lozano in Houston and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
