Officer did nothing until it was too late during Uvalde school shooting, prosecutor says

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A school police officer in Uvalde, Texas, stood by during one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history and made no attempt to distract or stop the gunman before he opened fire inside classrooms, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde schools officer who was among the first to respond to the attack, arrived while the teenage assailant was still outside the building and did nothing, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements of a criminal trial.

The officer only went inside Robb Elementary minutes later “after the damage had been done,” Turner said.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty in the case, which is a rare example of charges being brought against an officer who is accused of not doing more to save lives. His attorney has said the officer tried to save children that day in 2022.

Once inside the school, authorities waited more than an hour to confront the shooter. Gonzales faces 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if he’s convicted.

“He could have stopped him, but he didn’t want to be the target,” said Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, who was among the 19 students and two teachers who were killed.

Duran, who arrived at the courthouse Tuesday morning to watch the beginning of the trial, said authorities stood by more than three years ago while her sister “died protecting children.”

Defense attorneys insisted Tuesday that Gonzales did what he could when he arrived at a confusing and chaotic scene. They described an officer who tried to assess where the gunman was while thinking he was being fired on without protection against a high-powered rifle.

Gonzales was among the first group to go into the building before they took fire from Ramos, the officer’s attorneys said.

“This isn’t a man waiting around. This isn’t a man failing to act,” defense attorney Jason Goss said.

Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.

Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training, the special prosecutor said. “When you hear gunshots, you go to the gunfire,” Turner said.

“When a child calls 911, we have a right to expect a response,” Turner said, his voice trembling with emotion.

Some families of the victims were upset that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.

Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway. A tactical team of officers eventually went into the classroom and killed the shooter.

An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until the tactical team breached the classroom and killed Salvador Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the shooting.

The trial for Gonzales was expected to last about two weeks, Judge Sid Harle said.

Among the potential witnesses are FBI agents, Texas Rangers, emergency dispatchers, school employees and family members of the victims.

At the request of Gonzales’ attorneys, the trial was moved to Corpus Christi after they argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of putting children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage the shooter and by not following his training.

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.

According to the state review, Gonzales told investigators that once police realized there were students still sitting in other classrooms, he helped evacuate them.

Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018.

Sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson was charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack. It was the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting, and Peterson was acquitted by a jury in 2023.

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Ingram in Corpus Christi, Texas; Juan A. Lozano in Houston and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.