Former Uvalde School Police Officer Adrian Gonzales Found Not Guilty
Uvalde School Shooting Adrian Gonzales Let Off The Hook In Criminal Trial
Published
A former school police officer who was on active duty during the 2022 Uvalde school shooting has been found not guilty on 29 charges ... nearly four years after the tragic incident in which 19 children and 2 adults were killed by a campus gunman, as police officers waited for more than an hour to engage with the shooter. Ten students survived.
Adrian Gonzales was acquitted of 29 counts of endangering children on Wednesday evening, ABC News reports. Each of the counts carried a maximum penalty of two years in prison. The Texas jury deliberated for more than 7 hours before returning its verdict.
Prosecutors argued Gonzales hadn't followed his training at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in May 2022 during the shooting. The defense claimed Gonzales had been targeted for a wider failure by law enforcement officers.
Gonzales' lawyers argued the former school police officer did everything he could have and acted according to the information he'd been given ... they added several other officers had arrived at the scene at the same time as Gonzales.
Several family members of the children who'd died in the shooting were present during Gonzales' trial proceedings ... many became emotional when his verdict was read.
Former Robb Elementary student Salvador Rolando Ramos shot and killed 19 students and two teachers before he was killed by a Border Patrol agent who rushed into the school by himself.
Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo has also been charged with endangerment or abandonment of a child, and he's pleaded not guilty. His trial's been indefinitely delayed.
