Uvalde trial: Verdict reached in case against former school police officer

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- A verdict has been reached successful the proceedings of former Uvalde, Texas, schoolhouse constabulary officer Adrian Gonzales.

Gonzales was among the archetypal officers to respond to the May 24, 2022, mass shooting astatine Robb Elementary School, successful which 19 students and 2 teachers were killed. It took 77 minutes earlier instrumentality enforcement mounted a counterassault to extremity the rampage.

Prosecutors alleged Gonzales, who is charged with 29 counts of kid abandonment oregon endangerment, did not travel his grooming and endangered the 19 students who died and an further 10 surviving students.

Prosecutors claimed Gonzales had a unsocial accidental to halt the carnage erstwhile helium arrived and learned gunman Salvador Ramos' determination from a teaching aide. The adjutant testified that she repeatedly urged Gonzales to intervene, but said the serviceman did "nothing" successful those important moments. Prosecutors besides argued Gonzales failed to enactment erstwhile helium got wrong the school.

Gonzales pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argued helium was unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement nonaccomplishment that day.

The defence argued that Gonzales did everything helium could successful that infinitesimal -- including gathering captious information, evacuating children and entering the schoolhouse -- and said Gonzales acted connected the accusation helium had. The defence besides highlighted that different officers arrived successful the aforesaid timeframe arsenic Gonzales and that astatine slightest 1 serviceman had an accidental to sprout the gunman earlier helium entered the school.

This lawsuit marks the 2nd clip successful U.S. past that prosecutors person sought to clasp a subordinate of instrumentality enforcement criminally accountable for their effect to a wide shooting.

In 2023, a Florida assemblage acquitted Scot Peterson, a erstwhile Broward County sheriff's deputy, who was charged with kid neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction during the 2018 shooting astatine Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School successful Parkland, Florida. Peterson's lawyers argued his relation arsenic an equipped schoolhouse assets serviceman did not magnitude to a caregiving station needed to beryllium kid neglect successful Florida, and that the effect to the shooting was muddled by mediocre communication.

Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo -- who was the on-site commandant connected the time of the Robb Elementary shooting -- is besides charged with endangerment oregon abandonment of a kid and has pleaded not guilty. Arredondo's lawsuit has been delayed indefinitely by an ongoing national suit filed aft the U.S. Border Patrol refused repeated efforts by Uvalde prosecutors to interrogation Border Patrol agents who responded to the shooting, including 2 who were successful the tactical portion liable for sidesplitting the gunman astatine the school. 

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