Former Uvalde school cop Adrian Gonzales goes on trial

By Shimon Prokupecz, Matthew J. Friedman and Rachel Clarke, CNN

Corpus Christi, Texas (CNN) — The trial of former school police officer Adrian Gonzales began Tuesday with emotional opening statements from the prosecution and defense about the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas.

Gonzales is accused of failing to protect children before the shooter got into the school and massacred 19 children and two teachers. His lawyers say the only person responsible for the worst school shooting since Sandy Hook is the gunman himself, who was killed by Border Patrol officers.

Special prosecutor Bill Turner said May 24, 2022, started as a “day of celebration” for the fourth-graders receiving their end-of-year certificates of achievement, before the gunman walked onto their campus.

He described how – after shots were fired outside and Gonzales became the first officer to arrive – a coach, Melodye Flores, told Gonzales where to go, and repeated that the danger was evident.

“His shots are ringing out,” Turner said of the gunman. “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.”

While still outside, the gunman “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, at times choking up.

“(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 reported on his police radio he thought the shooter had made it into the building, the prosecutor said. “This isn’t confusion. Adrian Gonzales remains,” he said.

Gonzales, now 52, has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment.

Defense lawyer Jason Goss acknowledged the emotions of the prosecutor. “I could understand why he had emotion. I can’t talk to you without it either,” he told the jury.

“This is one of the worst things, one of the worst things that ever happened in this country,” he went on. “It’s awful, but Adrian Gonzales did the best he could with what he knew at the time.”

He said Gonzales was responding to reports of a vehicle accident involving a man with a gun, not a school shooting.

Goss questioned the portrayal of events by the prosecution and said there was much confusion at the scene.

“This is not a man that does nothing,” he said of his client. “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 urged the jury not to be swayed by their emotions about what happened.

“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,” he said, adding that the person responsible was the gunman alone.

“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.”

His fellow defense lawyer Nico LaHood summed it up: “Evil is not rectified by injustice.”

Gonzales sat with his attorneys, in a dark gray suit with his hair slicked back, as the jury was brought in Tuesday.

He stood as two of the counts against him were read aloud, saying that he had been advised of the general location of the shooter and had time to respond but failed to engage, distract or delay the shooter before he got into the classrooms. The names of 29 students – 19 killed and 10 survivors – were read out.

In legal motions before the jury was brought in, defense lawyers opposed the displaying of autopsy photographs of the dead children and calling them “victims” of Gonzales’ actions, unless and until he is proven guilty. The judge ruled the students should only be called victims of the gunman for now. He reserved the right to exclude photos at a later time.

The trial was moved from Uvalde to Corpus Christi, 200 miles away, after a defense request last year.

The trial is only the second prosecution of a police officer for their actions during a school shooting. Former school resource officer Scot Peterson was acquitted of wrongdoing after he stayed outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, while a gunman was inside, shooting 17 people dead and injuring 17 more in February 2018.

Peterson’s lawyer said his client stayed outside because he could not tell where the shots were coming from.

A guilty verdict in Gonzales’ case could influence how law enforcement is expected to respond to emergencies, particularly active shooters.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz and Matthew J. Friedman reported from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Rachel Clarke wrote in Atlanta.

The post Former Uvalde school cop Adrian Gonzales goes on trial appeared first on News Channel 3-12.