Texas Jury Acquits Uvalde Officer in Shooting Case

A Texas jury acquitted a former school police officer of child endangerment charges on Wednesday related to his response during the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, delivering a not guilty verdict after more than seven hours of deliberations in a Corpus Christi courtroom.

Adrian Gonzales, 52, faced 29 felony counts of child abandonment or endangerment, each tied to one of the 19 students killed or 10 others injured in the May 24, 2022, attack. The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school around 11:33 a.m. and opened fire in two connected fourth-grade classrooms, killing 19 children and two teachers before a tactical team killed him 77 minutes later. Gonzales, who worked for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police at the time, was among the first officers to arrive, parking his vehicle at 11:31 a.m. and entering the building about four minutes later, after the shooter had already fired more than 100 rounds.

Prosecutors argued that Gonzales, with over a decade of experience and active shooter training, failed to confront or delay Ramos in the critical initial moments, despite being alerted to the gunman's location. A key...