A Texas jury has acquitted a former Uvalde police officer of criminal charges tied to his response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Jurors on Wednesday found former Officer Adrian Gonzales not guilty of 29 counts of child endangerment and criminal negligence after about seven hours of deliberations. Gonzales was charged with failing to act during the attack that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The shooting occurred in May 2022, when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire inside the elementary school in Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio. Nearly 400 law enforcement officers eventually responded, but it took 77 minutes after the first officers arrived for police to confront and kill the shooter, according to a 2024 federal report.
Prosecutors argued during the three-week trial that Gonzales, 52, was the first officer on the scene and failed to immediately confront the gunman. “You can’t stand by and allow it to happen,” special prosecutor Bill Turner told jurors during closing arguments, saying the shooter needed to be stopped in the earliest moments of the attack.
Defense attorney Jason Goss countered that prosecutors were attempting to scapegoat Gonzales and make him “pay for the pain of that day.”
The case was a rare instance in the United States of a police officer being criminally charged for failing to protect children from harm.
The law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting has been widely criticized and has led to multiple lawsuits. In 2024, victims’ families reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde over the police response to the attack, one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
A U.S. Justice Department report released in 2024 under the Biden administration cited a “lack of urgency” in the police response to the shooting.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Tell your Smart Speaker to "PLAY 1080 KRLD"
Sign Up to receive our KRLD Insider Newsletter for more news
Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube