TX v. Adrian Gonzales

Adrian Gonzales, a 52-year-old former Uvalde school district police officer, was the first officer to reach Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, the day a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. A Uvalde County grand jury indicted him on 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child. Prosecutors alleged that Gonzales heard the gunshots, was told by a witness what the shooter was wearing and which way he was heading, and then failed to engage, distract, or delay him before the gunman reached classrooms 111 and 112. The State alleged he ignored the active shooter training he had helped teach two months earlier, that he did not advance toward the gunfire, and that he did not help wounded victims get medical attention. Each count carried a possible state jail sentence. These were accusations the State had to prove, and Gonzales pleaded not guilty.

The trial, moved from Uvalde to Nueces County in Corpus Christi, turned on a question Texas courts had never answered: whether a police officer can be held criminally responsible for failing to act during an active shooter event. The prosecution argued Gonzales had a sworn duty to protect children and abandoned it in the seconds that mattered most. The defense argued that the child endangerment statute was never written to reach an officer responding to an emergency, that Gonzales was armed only with a handgun against a rifle, and that public anger over a massive, multi-agency failure was being aimed at one man. Jurors weighed his own statements to investigators against the training records, the surveillance timeline, and the 77 minutes children spent calling 911.

The case went to trial, and a jury found Adrian Gonzales not guilty. Justice Is A Process does not exist to cheer a verdict or mourn it. We exist to watch whether the system does what it promises: that the State carries the full burden of proof, that a defendant keeps the presumption of innocence, and that a jury decides on the evidence and nothing else. This acquittal is now part of the public record of how Uvalde was answered in a courtroom. The full day-by-day coverage below documents the testimony, the arguments, and the moments that led the jury to its decision.