Corpus Christi, Texas– A Texas judge seated a jury Monday in the trial of a former school police officer in Uvalde who was part of a reluctant law enforcement response to a… The worst school shootings In the history of the United States, he was accused of failing to protect children from the gunman.
Adrian Gonzalezone of the first officers to respond to the 2022 attack, is charged with 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in a rare trial for an officer accused of not doing more to save lives. authorities I waited over an hour To confront the teenage shooter who 19 students and two teachers were killed At Robb Elementary School.
Gonzalez has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer said the officer tried to save the children that day.
The panel of 12 jurors and four alternates were convened Monday evening by Judge Sid Harley, after hundreds of potential jurors were asked what they knew about the response and their impressions of what happened. The judge said the court is not looking for jurors who know nothing about the shooting but wants those who can be impartial.
About 100 people were fired after they said they had already formed opinions. One man said more officers should be prosecuted, while a teacher said she would throw herself in front of her students to protect them.
Bill Turner, the special prosecutor, told potential jurors they would need to consider whether the officer’s inaction was harmful.
“If there is a duty to act and you fail to act, that is child endangerment,” he said.
The judge said the trial is expected to last about two weeks.
Potential witnesses include FBI agents, Texas Department of Public Safety marshals, school employees and family members of the victims.
Nearly 400 officers from state, local and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the school, but it was 77 minutes from the time authorities arrived until a tactical team breached the classroom and killed the shooter, Salvador Ramos. An investigation later showed that Ramos was Obsessed with violence and bad reputation In the months before the attack.
Gonzalez and former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo were among the first to arrive at the scene, the only two officers facing criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial date has not been set.
The charges against Gonzalez carry a penalty of up to two years in prison if convicted.
Police and Texas Governor Greg Abbott initially said quick law enforcement actions killed Ramos and saved lives. But this version quickly disintegrated, as the families described He begged the police to go to the building 911 calls emerged from students asking for help.
The indictment alleges that Gonzalez placed the children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and not following his active shooter training. The allegations also say he did not advance toward the shooting despite hearing gunshots and being told where the shooting was.
State and federal reviews of the shooting have been cited Consecutive problems In law enforcement training, communications, leadership and technology, he wondered why officers had to wait so long.
According to the state audit, Gonzalez told investigators that once police realized there were students still sitting in other classrooms, he helped evacuate them.
Some family members of the victims said More officers should be charged.
“They all waited and let the children and the teachers die,” said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the two teachers killed.
Prosecutors will likely face a high hurdle to winning a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as we have seen yet The 2018 Parkland, Florida, school massacre.
Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Peterson was charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack. This was the first trial of its kind in the United States for a campus shooting, and Peterson was He was acquitted By a jury in 2023.
At the request of Gonzalez’s attorney, the trial was moved about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast to Corpus Christi. They said Gonzalez could not get a fair trial in Uvalde, and prosecutors did not object.
The city of Uvalde, with a population of 15,000, still retains many landmarks reminiscent of the shooting. Robb Elementary School is closed but still standing, and a memorial of 21 crosses and flowers stands near the school sign.
Even with a three-hour drive to Corpus Christi, the family wants someone to attend the trial every day, said Jesse Rizzo, whose 9-year-old niece Jackie was one of the students killed.
“It is important for the jury to see that Jackie had a large, strong family,” Rizzo said.
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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and Juan A. Lozano in Houston.