By VALERIE GONZALEZ and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A former Uvalde schools police officer was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he failed in his duties to confront the gunman at Robb Elementary during the critical first minutes of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Jurors deliberated for more than seven hours before finding Adrian Gonzales, 52, not guilty in the first trial over the hesitant law enforcement response to the 2022 attack, in which a teenage gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers. Had he been convicted, he faced up two years in prison on more than two dozen charges of child abandonment and endangerment.
Gonzales appeared to fight back tears and hugged his lawyers after the verdict was read in a courtroom in Corpus Christi, hundreds of miles from Uvalde, where his legal team said a fair trial would not have been possible.
“Thank you for the jury for considering all the evidence,” Gonzales told reporters. Asked if he wanted to say anything to the families, he declined.
Several family members of the victims sat in silence in the courtroom, some crying or wiping away tears.
“Faith is fractured, but you never lose faith,” said Jesse Rizo, whose 9-year-old niece Jackie Cazares was killed. He said he was frustrated by the verdict and hopes the state will press ahead with the trial of former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, the only other officer who has been charged over the police response.
“Those children in the cemetery can’t speak for themselves,” Rizo said.
Jurors declined to speak to reporters while leaving.
Arredondo’s trial has not yet been set. Paul Looney, his attorney, told The Associated Press that he believes the verdict will result in prosecutors dropping the case against his client.
“These people have been vilified, and it’s horrible what’s been done to them. These guys didn’t do anything wrong,” Looney said.
A rare trial ends in acquittal
The nearly three-week trial was an unusual case in the U.S. of an officer facing criminal charges on accusations of failing to stop a crime and protect lives.
The proceedings included emotional testimony from teachers who were shot and survived. Prosecutors argued that Gonzales abandoned his training and did nothing to stop or interrupt the teenage gunman before he entered the school.
“We’re expected to act differently when talking about a child that can’t defend themselves,” special prosecutor Bill Turner said during closing arguments Wednesday. “If you have a duty to act, you can’t stand by while a child is in imminent danger.”
At least 370 law enforcement officers rushed to the school, where 77 minutes passed before a tactical team finally entered the classroom to confront and kill the gunman. Gonzales was one of just two officers indicted, angering some victim’s relatives who said they wanted more to be held accountable.
Gonzales was charged with 29 counts of child abandonment and endangerment — each count representing the 19 students who were killed and 10 others who were injured.
Jurors talked about ‘gaps’ in case, lawyer says
During the trial jurors heard a medical examiner describe the fatal wounds to the children, some of whom were shot more than a dozen times. Several parents told of sending their children to school for an awards ceremony and the panic that ensued as the attack unfolded.
Gonzales’ lawyers said he arrived upon a chaotic scene of rifle shots echoing on school grounds and never saw the gunman before the attacker went inside the school. They also insisted that three other officers who arrived seconds later had a better chance to stop the gunman.
“He was the lowest man on the totem pole. They thought he was easy pickings,” Nico LaHood, one of Gonzales’ attorneys, said of prosecutors after the acquittal.
LaHood said he briefly polled jurors on their decision after the verdict.
“They talked about gaps. They talked about perspective and what the government didn’t prove about Adrian,” LaHood said.
Families made the long trip to attend trial
Some victims’ families made the long drive to watch Gonzales’ trial. Early on the sister of one of the teachers killed was removed from the courtroom after an angry outburst following one officer’s testimony.
Gonzales’ trial was tightly focused on his actions in the early moments of the attack, but prosecutors also presented the graphic and emotional testimony as the result of police failures.
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.
Looney, Arredondo’s attorney, said he still wants his client to go trial so he can clear his name, saying, “Pete Arredondo deserves and needs a complete airing and public vindication. I hope he gets that chance.”
Prosecutors faced a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the 2018 school massacre in Parkland, Florida. A sheriff’s deputy was acquitted after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
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Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.