Uvalde police officer found not guilty of child endangerment for his response to elementary school shooting
A former police officer in Uvalde, Texas has been found not guilty of child endangerment for his response to the mass shooting at an elementary school in May 2022.
Adrian Gonzalez, 52, was acquitted on all 29 counts of child endangerment in connection with the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on Wednesday, after jurors deliberated for more than seven hours.
Gonzalez was among the first to respond to the scene, and prosecutors had claimed he failed to take action – endangering the 19 students who died as well as 10 other students who survived the massacre.
Two teachers were also killed in the school shooting as law enforcement took more than an hour to launch a counterassault.
Prosecutors claimed Gonzalez, in particular, had a unique opportunity to stop the mass shooting when he learned of gunman Salvador Ramos’ location from a teaching aide – who testified she repeatedly urged Gonzalez to intervene, but said he did ‘nothing.’
Attorneys for the former police officers, though, argued that he was being unfairly blamed for a larger law enforcement failure that day.
They claimed he did everything he could in the moment – including gathering critical information, evacuating children and entering the school – and said Gonzalez acted on the information he had.
The defense also pointed out that other officers arrived around the same time as Gonzalez and that at least one cop had an opportunity to shoot the gunman before he entered the school.
Adrian Gonzalez was acquitted on all 29 counts of child endangerment in connection with the mass shooting at Robb Elementary on Wednesday, after just one hour of deliberations
It took law enforcement officers more than an hour to engage the suspect at the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022
Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the onsite commander on the day of the shooting, is also charged with endangerment or abandonment of a child and has pleaded not guilty.
But his case has been delayed indefinitely by an ongoing federal suit filed after US border Patrol refused multiple efforts by Uvalde prosecutors to interview the agents who responded to the shooting – including two who were in the tactical unit responsible for killing the gunman.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
