A jury has acquitted former Uvalde, Texas, college police officer Adrian Gonzales for his response to the Robb Elementary taking pictures in Might 2022.
After one hour of deliberations, the jury returned a not responsible verdict on all 29 counts of kid endangerment.
Gonzales was among the many first officers to answer the mass taking pictures, through which 19 college students and two lecturers had been killed. It took 77 minutes earlier than regulation enforcement mounted a counterassault to finish the rampage.
Prosecutors alleged Gonzales didn’t comply with his coaching and endangered the 19 college students who died and a further 10 surviving college students.
Former Uvalde college district police officer Adrian Gonzales speaks with a courtroom officer as they watch for the jury to reach on the seventh day of Gonzales’ trial on the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Jan. 14, 2026.
Sam Owens/The San Antonio Categorical-Information through AP
Prosecutors claimed Gonzales had a novel alternative to cease the carnage when he arrived and realized gunman Salvador Ramos’ location from a instructing aide. The aide testified that she repeatedly urged Gonzales to intervene, however stated the officer did “nothing” in these essential moments. Prosecutors additionally argued Gonzales did not act as soon as he bought inside the varsity.
Gonzales pleaded not responsible and his legal professionals argued he was unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day.
The protection argued that Gonzales did every thing he might in that second — together with gathering essential data, evacuating youngsters and getting into the varsity — and stated Gonzales acted on the data he had. The protection additionally highlighted that different officers arrived in the identical timeframe as Gonzales and that at the least one officer had a chance to shoot the gunman earlier than he entered the varsity.
Legislation enforcement works on the scene at Robb Elementary Faculty, website of a Might 24, 2022 mass taking pictures on Might 25, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Pictures
This case marks the second time in U.S. historical past that prosecutors have sought to carry a member of regulation enforcement criminally accountable for his or her response to a mass taking pictures.
In 2023, a Florida jury acquitted Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with little one neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction throughout the 2018 taking pictures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Florida. Peterson’s legal professionals argued his position as an armed college useful resource officer didn’t quantity to a caregiving put up wanted to show little one neglect in Florida, and that the response to the taking pictures was muddled by poor communication.
Former Uvalde Colleges Police Chief Pete Arredondo — who was the on-site commander on the day of the Robb Elementary taking pictures — can also be charged with endangerment or abandonment of a kid and has pleaded not responsible. Arredondo’s case has been delayed indefinitely by an ongoing federal lawsuit filed after the U.S. Border Patrol refused repeated efforts by Uvalde prosecutors to interview Border Patrol brokers who responded to the taking pictures, together with two who had been within the tactical unit answerable for killing the gunman on the college.
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