Ex-Uvalde schools police officer pleads not guilty to charges of child endangerment and abandonment in 2022 massacre

Originally Published: 25 JUL 24 09:43 ET

Updated: 25 JUL 24 10:10 ET

By Holly Yan and Leigh Waldman, CNN

(CNN) — One of the first police officers who responded to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, pleaded not guilty Thursday to more than two dozen criminal counts, his attorney Nico LaHood said.

Former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer Adrian Gonzales faces 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child in connection with the slaughter on May 24, 2022.

The court hearing came more than two years after law enforcement’s botched response to the mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. It took officers 77 minutes after the gunman walked into the school to take him down. As victims lay dead or dying inside classrooms, officers were seen on video waiting outside in hallways.

The delayed response to the attack has been described as an “abject failure,” with officials and experts blaming multiple entities.

Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are to this point the only law enforcement officers to face criminal charges in the deadliest school shooting in more than a decade.

According to Gonzales’ indictment, the former officer failed to “follow his active shooter training.”

“After hearing gun shots and after being advised of the general location of the shooter and having time to respond to the shooter, the said Adrian Gonzales failed to engage, distract or delay the shooter, to attempt to engage, distract and delay the shooter, and failed to otherwise act in a way to impede the shooter until after the shooter entered rooms 111 and 112 of Robb Elementary School and shot at a child or children in Rooms 111 and 112,” the indictment states.

Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, said his client’s “position is he did not violate school district policy or state law.”

“The application of this statute, to law enforcement, under these circumstances is unprecedented in the state of Texas,” the defense attorney said last month. “It will take time to evaluate these allegations and the underlying facts.”

Gonzales told investigators he was at the high school when he heard a report of a vehicle accident near Robb Elementary and went to check. He said he heard shots and entered the south hallway along with Arredondo. Gonzales said he tried to call for a SWAT team on his radio but could not transmit inside the school building – so he left.

“Once I got out to get radio reception, I never went back in,” Gonzales told investigators.

While the gunman roamed freely inside the school, Gonzales said he spent much of the time waiting with emergency medics outside the west door. He said he found a set of keys and a floor plan of the school that had been requested by a Texas Ranger on scene.

Gonzales, who was hired by the Uvalde school district in July 2021, left the department in February 2023. No specific reason was given for his departure, according to the Uvalde News Leader.

Arredondo, who was considered the de facto incident commander at the scene, faces 10 counts of child endangerment and known criminal negligence, according to his indictment.

Arredondo was fired by the Uvalde school board three months after the shooting. He waived his right to an arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty last week, CNN affiliate KSAT reported.

Uvalde County Jail records show both Arredondo and Gonzales were released on $10,000 bond.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz and Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.

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