A former police officer was found not guilty of child endangerment after being accused of failing to take the appropriate action to protect the victims in a horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead in May 2022.
Us Weekly rounded up everything to know about the ex law enforcement officer and key moments from his trial.
Who Is Adrian Gonzales?
Adrian Gonzales, 52, is a former Uvalde police officer who responded to the scene during the Robb Elementary School shooting May 24, 2022.
Gonzales joined the Uvalde Police Department in 2009 after graduating from the Middle Rio Grande Law Enforcement Academy that same year. He had been working as an officer for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District since 2021 at the time of the attack. He, and the rest of the police department, were all suspended in 2023 following public scrutiny over their actions. (It took law enforcement officers 77 minutes to take down the 18-year-old shooter. An investigation found that if officers had responded sooner, lives could have potentially been saved.)
Gonzales was one of two officers who were officially charged in the investigation, alongside Chief Pete Arredondo, whose trial is currently delayed.
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What Were Adrian Gonzales’ Charges?
Gonzales was charged with 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment. According to his indictment, he “failed to engage, distract or delay the shooter” in accordance with active shooter training that he’d received throughout his years as a law enforcement officer.
Each charge came with a maximum sentence of two years in prison. If he had been found guilty on all charges, Gonzales could have received a maximum sentence of 58 years, which would have likely equated to him spending the rest of his life behind bars.
Gonzales pleaded not guilty.
On January 2, Gonzales’ defense attorney, Nico LaHood, spoke in his client’s favor with KSAT in San Antonio.
“Those precious souls were stolen by a monster that day, but that monster was not Adrian [Gonzales],” he said at the time. “He was there, he was present. He was going into danger. And so the narrative of the government is something we’re going to contest highly, and that’s going to be the point of contention before this jury.”
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Adrian Gonzales’ Trial Begins
The jury selection process for the highly anticipated trial began on January 5. Criminal defense attorney Jonathan Chavez said the “goal” was to find jurors that were “completely fair” — a task that he believed to be potentially difficult given the high profile nature of the case.
“The trick, especially in this case, is finding somebody who hasn’t heard anything about it or even knows anybody that’s heard about it,” Chavez said, per ABC 7. “I mean, this was international news and it continues to be; how realistic is it to find someone that has never heard of this case? It’s going to be hard.”
Out of the pool of roughly 450 potential jurors that were called in for service, around 50 requested to be excused from the case.
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Key Moments From Adrian Gonzales’ Trial
One major moment in the trial came on January 14, when Melodye Flores, a former teacher’s aide at the school, gave an emotional testimony in which she claimed she begged the officer for help two or three times during the shooting.
“I told him that he [the shooter] needed to get stopped before he went into the fourth-grade building,” she said in court.
When asked further questions about Gonzales’ response, she said he did nothing.
However, LaHood argued, “The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there. He did what he could, with what he knew at the time,” according to WDBJ 7.
Another important witness, Texas Ranger Nick Hill, broke down the timeline of events of the shooting.
Hill alleged that Gonzales parked his vehicle at 11:31 a.m. on the day of the shooting. Within 30 seconds, around 11:32 a.m., he called in the report. The shooter then entered the school building at 11:32 and 59 seconds, and he reportedly was able to get inside the first classroom at 11:33 and 45 seconds.
Gonzales finally entered the school at 11:35 and 48 seconds, at which point the suspect had already fired his weapon 117 times.
Gonzales’ legal team’s stance was that the situation pointed to a larger issue with the local police force — not just one man.
Jury Reaches Verdict in Adrian Gonzales Trial
Following seven hours of deliberations, a Texas jury acquitted Gonzales of all charges on January 21. The 52-year-old could be seen hugging and shaking his hands with his lawyers after the verdict was read.
“First thing’s first: I want to start by thanking God for this — my family, my wife and these guys right here (the defense attorneys),” Gonzales told reporters. “He put them in my path, you know? And I’m just thankful for that. Thank you for the jury for considering all the evidence and making that verdict.”
Gonzales said he did not have anything to say to the victims’ families at that moment.
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