First Trial Over Law Enforcement’s Delayed Response to Uvalde School Shooting Set to Begin

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — The first criminal trial over the delayed police response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting is set to begin Monday, with a former Uvalde schools police officer accused of endangering children by failing to confront the gunman.

Former officer Adrian Gonzales was among the first law enforcement officers to arrive after a shooter opened fire, killing 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers. Prosecutors allege Gonzales did not take action to stop the attack, making his case a rare attempt to hold an officer criminally liable for failing to act during a mass shooting.

Gonzales, 52, is charged with 29 counts of child endangerment related to those killed and injured in the May 2022 attack. The indictment alleges he placed children in “imminent danger” by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his active shooter training, despite hearing gunfire and being told the shooter’s location. Each count carries a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.

The trial will be held in Corpus Christi, about 200 miles southeast of Uvalde, after defense attorneys argued Gonzales could not receive a fair trial in his home county. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 5.

Families of the victims have long argued that if Gonzales and the nearly 400 officers who responded had confronted the gunman sooner instead of waiting more than an hour, lives might have been saved. State and federal reviews of the shooting cited widespread failures in training, communication, leadership and technology and questioned why officers delayed before killing the shooter, Salvador Ramos.

Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, said his client is innocent and that public anger over the shooting is being misdirected.

“He was focused on getting children out of that building,” LaHood said. “He knows where his heart was and what he tried to do for those children.”

Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo are the only officers charged in the case. Arredondo faces multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment; his trial has not been scheduled, and he is also seeking a change of venue. Prosecutors have not explained why no other officers were charged. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.

Legal experts say the case is highly unusual. Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston Law Center professor, said it is “extremely unusual” to prosecute an officer for failing to take action.

“At the end of the day, you’re talking about convicting someone for failing to act,” Thompson said, “and that’s always a challenge because you have to show that they failed to take reasonable steps.”

Phil Stinson, a Bowling Green State University criminal justice professor who tracks police prosecutions nationwide, said only two similar cases appear in his database. One involved a Florida sheriff’s deputy charged after the 2018 Parkland school shooting; he was acquitted in 2023. Another was a 2022 conviction of a former Baltimore police officer for failing to protect an assault victim, which the Maryland Supreme Court overturned last year, citing the public duty doctrine that generally limits police liability to the public at large rather than specific individuals.

Michael Wynne, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor not involved in the case, said securing a conviction will be difficult.

“This is clearly gross negligence,” Wynne said. “I think it’s going to be difficult to prove some type of criminal malintent.”

Thompson said the scale of the tragedy could nonetheless weigh heavily.

“You’re talking about little children who are being slaughtered and a very long delay by a lot of officers,” she said. “This is a different situation because of the tremendous harm that was done to so many children.”