Prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales was alerted to the gunman’s position outside Robb Elementary School but stayed put as the shooter fired into classrooms and entered the building, abandoning his duty during the 2022 massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers.
In opening statements at Gonzales’ trial on 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment, special prosecutor Bill Turner recounted how the May 24 incident began as a “day of celebration” for fourth-graders receiving end-of-year awards before the gunman arrived on campus.
After initial shots outside, a coach, Melodye Flores, encountered the shooter face-to-face, dodged his fire, tripped while fleeing, and urged Gonzales — the first arriving officer — to act.
“She’s face-to-face with the gunman, and he fires on her, and she turns to run, and when she turns to run, she trips, and she falls. And when she gets up, Adrian Gonzales, the police officer, is there,” Turner said, ABC News reported. “She says, ‘He’s over there.’ She urges him to go get him.”
“He gets on the radio and says, ‘Shots are fired, he’s wearing black, he’s in the parking lot,'” Turner continued, per CNN, speaking softly and at times choking up. “His shots are ringing out. This is not confusion.”
“He knows where (the shooter) is, but Adrian Gonzales remains at the south side of the school. The gunman makes his way up the west side of the west building where the fourth-graders are,” he said.
The gunman, while outside, “fired shots into a classroom full of children, (room) 102. Adrian Gonzales remains. He moves down to classroom 104, fires shots into the classroom of 104. Adrian Gonzales remains,” Turner said. “(The gunman) then hurries to the west door and enters. It’s been a minute, and there’s a break in the shooting, and Adrian Gonzales remains.”
Gonzales radioed that he believed the shooter had entered the building.
“This isn’t confusion. Adrian Gonzales remains,” Turner said, CNN reported.
The 52-year-old Gonzales, dressed in a dark gray suit with slicked-back hair, pleaded not guilty. He stood as two charges were read, alleging he was advised of the shooter’s general location and had time to respond but failed to engage, distract, or delay him before he reached the classrooms.
The names of 29 students — 19 slain and 10 survivors — were listed.
Defense attorney Jason Goss recognized the prosecutor’s emotion.
“I could understand why he had emotion. I can’t talk to you without it either,” he said, per CNN. “This is one of the worst things, one of the worst things that ever happened in this country. It’s awful, but Adrian Gonzales did the best he could with what he knew at the time.”
Goss argued Gonzales responded to a vehicle accident involving a man with a gun, not an active school shooting, amid significant confusion.
“This is not a man that does nothing. This is not a man that is sitting and doing nothing. It’s a man who is confused. It’s a man who has made assumptions that are understandable, that turned out to be wrong. But he was trying. He was going towards that danger,” he said.
He cautioned against emotional verdicts. “What the prosecution wants you to do is see those horrible things, get so mad at Adrian that you say, ‘convict him’ because of this horrible thing that’s happened.”
Goss insisted the gunman alone bore responsibility. “The monster who did this to these kids, the monster who hurt these children, is dead. He is dead. He doesn’t get this justice.”
Co-defense lawyer Nico LaHood added: “Evil is not rectified by injustice,” CNN reported.
Using a map and time codes, the defense outlined Gonzales’ actions minute-by-minute, claiming he gathered information, evacuated children, and entered the school.
“The government wants to make it seem like he just sat there, you know. He didn’t just sit there — he did what he could with what he knew at the time,” LaHood said, ABC News reported.
He criticized plans to show autopsy photos. “They’re going to really want you to focus on these photos, and I wish they wouldn’t — not because it hurts us — because … it hurts those precious people over there,” gesturing to families in the gallery.
Before jury entry, defense attorneys objected to displaying autopsy images or labeling students as Gonzales’ “victims” pending a guilty verdict. Judge Sid Harle ruled they would be called victims of the gunman for now and reserved judgment on the photos.
The prosecution’s first witness, funeral home employee Gilbert Limones, described spotting the gunman after a car crash and trying to help, only for the shooter to fire at him. The gunman approached the school “very nonchalantly” and began firing at playground students, Limones said.
“I saw him walking towards the south end of the building and then started at every window and just randomly would just get the gun and shoot inside the windows,” he testified, per ABC.
Portions of Limones’ 911 call played: “Oh my god, he is about to shoot them. He is shooting at the people. Oh, Jesus.”
He said Gonzales’ white car passed the gunman, forgoing a chance to stop him.
“And then I just remember him going to the classrooms, and he started shooting window by window until he got to the door where he walked in through,” Limones said.
Despite nearly 400 responding officers, it took 77 minutes to confront and kill the shooter, who died at the hands of Border Patrol agents.
Gonzales is one of two charged officers; former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo’s trial is postponed amid a civil suit, as Border Patrol tactical unit members declined to speak with prosecutors.
The case was relocated 200 miles from Uvalde last year at the defense’s request. Jury selection on Monday was tense, with over 100 potential jurors excusing themselves for bias. Dozens criticized the police response.
“They were only protecting themselves more than they were protecting the children,” one dismissed juror said, drawing cheers and claps, ABC reported.”I would have sacrificed myself to save them, but they didn’t. They just sat there.”
Some expressed frustration that more officers weren’t charged.
“Are you saying this man is the whole problem? You are sticking it on his shoulders alone? How many of them were out there? They should all be sitting there with him,” another potential juror said, per ABC.
This marks only the second such prosecution. Florida deputy Scot Peterson was acquitted in 2023 for inaction during the 2018 Parkland shooting that killed 17. His defense cited unclear shot locations and poor communication, arguing his role didn’t equate to caregiving for child neglect charges.
Legal expert Bob Jarvis, a Nova Southeastern University law professor, noted similar challenges here, telling ABC, “What you’re really trying to do is argue … that being a coward is a crime, and that is very, very difficult.”
