The trial of former school police officer Adrian Gonzales began Tuesday with emotional opening statements from the prosecution and defense regarding the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Gonzales is accused of failing to protect the children before the shooter entered 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, began as a “day of celebration” for fourth graders receiving their end-of-year certificates of achievement, before the gunman entered 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 reiterated that the danger was evident.
“His shots are being heard,” Turner said of the gunman. “This is not confusion.”
“He knows where (the shooter), but Adrian Gonzales stays on 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 he was still outside, the gunman “fired shots into a classroom full of children, (room) 102. Adrian Gonzales remains. He moves down into classroom 104, fires shots into the classroom of 104. Adrian Gonzales remains,” said Turner, at times choking.
“(The gunman) then rushes to the west door and enters. A minute passes, and there is a pause in the shooting, and Adrian Gonzales remains.”
Gonzales reported on his police radio that he thought the shooter had entered the building, the prosecutor said. “This is not confusion. Adrian Gonzales remains,” he said.
Gonzales, now 52, pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment.
Defense attorney Jason Goss acknowledged the prosecutor’s emotions. “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 has ever happened in this country,” he continued. “It’s horrible, 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 asked the prosecution for a picture of the events and said there was a lot of confusion at the scene.
“This is not a man who does nothing,” he said of his client. “This is not a man who sits around and does nothing. He is a man who is confused. He is a man who made understandable assumptions, which turned out to be wrong. But he was trying. He was heading towards that danger.”
He urged the jury not to be swayed by their emotions about what happened.
“What the prosecution wants to do is to see those horrible things, get so mad at Adrian that you say, ‘condemn him’ because of this horrible thing that happened,” he said, adding that the person responsible was the lone gunman.
“The monster that did this to these kids, the monster that hurt these kids, is dead. He’s dead. He doesn’t get this justice.”
Fellow defense attorney Nico LaHood summed it up: “Evil is not rectified by injustice.”
Gonzales sat with his attorneys, wearing a dark gray suit with his hair slicked back, as the jury was brought in Tuesday.
He stood while two of the charges against him were read out loud, saying that he had been notified of the general location of the shooter and had time to respond but failed to engage, distract or distract the shooter before he entered the classrooms. The names of 29 students were read – 19 killed and 10 survivors.
In legal motions before the jury was brought in, defense attorneys opposed the showing of autopsy photos of the dead children and called them “victims” of Gonzales’ actions, unless and until he is proven guilty. The judge decided that the students should only be called victims of the gunman for now. He reserved the right to exclude photos later.
The trial was moved from Uvalde to Corpus Christi, 200 miles away, following 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 a misdemeanor after standing outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, while a gunman was inside, who shot 17 people dead and wounded 17 others 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.
CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz and Matthew J. Friedman reported from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Rachel Clarke wrote in Atlanta.
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