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The heartbroken families of the Uvalde school massacre victims said more police officers should be indicted over the lax law enforcement response – as one officer pleaded not guilty to dozens of criminal charges.
Adrian Gonzales, 51, a former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer, faces 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child in connection with the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.
Former student at the school Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire on those inside the building with a semi-automatic assault rifle, shooting dead 19 students and two teachers, leaving 17 further casualties.
Almost 400 Texas authorities flooded to the scene, but waited 77 minutes to confront the gunman inside. Video footage captured officers outside in the hallways as victims lay bleeding out and begging for help or dead from their bullet wounds in the deadliest school shooting in more than a decade.
On Thursday, family members who lost children at the hands of Ramos attended court to watch Gonzales’ arraignment. He pleaded not guilty to all 29 felony counts.
Gonzales and police chief Pete Arredondo are the only law enforcement officers indicted on criminal charges. Arredondo waived his right to an arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty. He faces 10 state felony counts of abandoning or endangering a child.
Each charge carries up to two years in jail if convicted.
Jerry Mata lost his 10-year-old little girl, Tess, in the massacre. He is now questioning why more of the 370-plus police officers at the scene aren’t also answering to the courts.
“For only two to be indicted, there should have been more because there was a lot of ranking officers during that day that knew what to do but decided not to,” Mata said after Gonzales’ hearing.
“We’ll take what we get and we’re just gonna continue fighting for the kids and the two teachers and see it all the way through,” he added.
Gonzalez went to check on a vehicle collision that had been reported near the school, he told investigators. He then heard gunfire ring out and entered Robb Elementary’s south hallway with Arrendondo.
He said to have tried – and failed – to call a SWAT team and left the building.
“Once I got out to get radio reception, I never went back in,” he told investigators.
Students desperately tried to call 911 in the classroom, before a tactical team of officers finally went into the building and killed Ramos.
Gonzalez failed to intervene after being advised of Ramos’ location and hearing him open fire, according to the indictment. His attorney Nico LaHood argued that Gonzalez believes he “did not violate school district policy or state law.”
