A former police officer has been acquitted of criminal child-endangerment charges related to his role in the flawed law enforcement response to the 2022 Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Adrian Gonzales, 52, who was a member of the Uvalde school district police department, had faced 29 charges of child endangerment.
Prosecutors in Texas alleged he failed to confront the gunman during the initial minutes of one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
Gonzales covered his head with his hands as the verdict was announced on Wednesday, while his attorneys patted him on the back.
In the courtroom, parents and siblings of the victims looked shocked by the outcome, with some wiping away tears and others staring silently ahead.
After deliberating for more than seven hours, the Corpus Christi jury returned not-guilty verdicts on all 29 counts, each of which carried a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.
The case was a rare example of a US police officer facing criminal charges for allegedly endangering lives by failing to stop an ongoing crime.
Trump latest: UK snubs US president’s Board of Peace over Putin’s involvement
Ukraine war latest: US envoy says peace negotiations down to just ‘one issue’ – as team travels to Moscow for Putin talks
The reality behind Trump’s Greenland ‘deal’
Defence attorney Jason Goss argued to the jury that prosecutors were trying to turn Mr Gonzales into a scapegoat for the collective failures of law enforcement during the shooting.
“They have decided he has to pay for the pain of that day and it’s not right,” Mr Goss said in closing arguments.
Mr Gonzales was one of the first of over 400 law enforcement officers to reach Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on 24 May 2022. Officers waited 77 minutes before entering the classroom where the gunman was barricaded.
The murderer a former student at the school, was eventually killed by police.
Read more from Sky News:
What will the US do about its gun laws?
‘Critical failures’ in Uvalde shooting response
Mr Gonzales faced allegations that he failed to confront the gunman after arriving at the school in his patrol car in response to reports of an active shooting.
“You can’t stand by and allow it to happen,” special prosecutor Bill Turner told the jury during closing arguments.
Me Gonzales said he never saw the gunmen and denied freezing during the initial chaos outside the school.
The nearly three-week trial was held in Corpus Christi, a coastal city about 175 miles (282 km) from Uvalde in southern Texas, after the defence argued he could not receive a fair trial in the small Texas town.
Mr Gonzales was one of only two people to face criminal charges over the shooting.
The second person, former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, is expected to stand trial later this year on similar charges and has pleaded not guilty.
State and federal investigations found that officers left the gunman alone in the classroom with children while deciding how to act.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Follow our channel and never miss an update
By the time a tactical team led by Border Patrol officers intervened, the attack had resulted in one of the highest death tolls in US school shooting history.
As he presented the federal report on Uvalde in 2024, former US Attorney General Merrick Garland said lives would have been saved had the police immediately confronted the gunman.
