Jury selection in the trial of a police officer involved in the response to the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, began Jan. 5.
Adrian Gonzales faces 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child, according to court documents in Texas's 38th Judicial District Court in Corpus Christi. He was employed as a police officer with the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District when the deadly mass shooting occurred onMay 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School.
He has pleaded not guilty,according to NBC News.
The Robb Elementary School shooting is the worst mass shooting at an educational institution in Texas history. On that day, a gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle killed 19 fourth graders and two of their teachers before he was killed by officers more than an hour after the shooting began.
The case was transferred from Uvalde to Corpus Christi earlier this year as the officer's lawyers arguedhe could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde, according to the Associated Press.
Visiting judge Sid Harle, whom Gov. Greg Abbott reappointed in September, told jurors that they needed to remain fair during what he called "a very high-profile case," accordingWFAA-TV in Dallas.
How long is the trial expected to take?
Harle told jurors to expect a two-week trial.
About150 potential jurors have been dismissedout of the roughly 450 people that comprised the pool earlier in the day, according to a 4 p.m. CT update from WFAA-TV.
Harle proceeded quickly through the jury selection process and was expected to seat a jury by the end of the day to begin hearing opening statements on Jan. 6, the news outlet reported. However, no jurors had been seated as of late afternoon.
The tone in the Central Jury Room was impassioned, with many potential jurors getting upset over some of the prosecutor's questions. The jury pool listened intently, with some people staying quiet while many others clapped and expressed anger when they heard the comments of other prospective jurors.
Several of the potential jurors spoke critically of law enforcement who responded to the shooting, saying they had not done enough to protect the children and staff; a handful said they could not be impartial in a trial because they or their loved ones are teachers. One prospective juror objected to how the criminal charges are being directed at Gonzales when he was not the only law enforcement officer at the scene of the shooting.
When Uvalde County Assistant District Attorney Bill Turner asked if they'd heard enough to make a decision, many potential jurors raised their hands, according to WFAA-TV.
The judge told jurors earlier in the day that an indictment does not mean a presumption of guilt, and that it will be up to the state to prove the case without a reasonable doubt.
Jurors won't hear the "punishment phase" of the case, meaning that while they'll determine whether Gonzales is guilty or innocent, the judge will impose the sentence.
Trial revives police criticisms
Law enforcement agencies that converged on Robb Elementary after the shooting began have been under criticism since for waiting 77 minutes to confront the gunman.
A 2024Department of Justice report found that:
Eleven officers from the Uvalde school district and Uvalde Police Department arrived on the scene within three minutes of the shooter's entry into the school. Five advanced initially and two were hit by shrapnel. Police made three attempts to enter the classrooms, which are adjoined by an interior door.
Pete Arredondo, then the chief of the Uvalde school police department, "directed officers at several points to delay making entry into classrooms in favor of searching for keys and clearing other classrooms," the report found. He also tried to negotiate with the shooter, and treated him as a barricaded subject instead of a continuing threat to children and school staff, the report says.
Victims who had died were put on ambulances and sent to hospitals while injured students were evacuated in buses. One adult victim was placed on a walkway on the ground to be attended to, where she later died.
"Law enforcement response (at) Robb Elementary School on May 24 and in the hours and days after was a failure that should not have happened," then Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters and Uvalde community members at a news conference at the time of the report's release.
Surveillance video footage, first obtained by the Austin American-Statesman and Austin ABC affiliate KVUE nearly seven months after the carnage, shows dozens of heavily armed and body-armor-clad officers from local, state and federal agencies in helmets walking back and forth in the hallway.
Some left the camera's frame and then reappeared. Others trained their weapons toward the classroom, talked, made cellphone calls, sent texts and looked at floor plans but did not enter or attempt to enter the classrooms.
Gonzales and Arredondo are the only officers charged in connection with the 2022 shooting,according to the Texas Tribune. Arredondo was charged with similar counts of child endangerment and abandonment, according to the Tribune, and his trial has not been scheduled. The newspaper reported that Arredondo is also seeking a change of venue.
Contributing: John C. Moritz, Tony Plohetski, Bayliss Wagner – USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jury selection begins for ex-cop in Uvalde mass shooting response
