One of the first officers who responded to the Uvalde school massacre in Texas pleaded not guilty Thursday to more than two dozen criminal counts.
Former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer Adrian Gonzales faces 29 counts of abandoning and endangering a child in connection with the May 2022 slaughter that left 19 children and two teachers dead. If convicted, the state felony is punishable by up to two years behind bars.
Gonzales was arraigned Thursday, more than two years after the deadliest school shooting in more than a decade. It took law enforcement 77 minutes after the gunman walked into Robb Elementary School to take him down. As victims lay dead or dying inside classrooms, officers were seen on video waiting outside in hallways.
The botched response to the carnage has been described as an “abject failure,” with officials and experts blaming multiple entities.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only law enforcement officers to be indicted on criminal charges so far.
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, and failed 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.
During his court appearance Thursday, Gonzales waived the reading of the charges. When asked if he understood the charges against him, he simply responded, “Yes sir.”
About 40 relatives of the victims and survivors packed the courtroom for the arraignment. After the hearing, some of the victims’ family members followed Gonzales to his car, shouting, “Say you’re sorry!”
Outside court, Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, said his client “feels he’s innocent.”
“There were over 370 officers there. We have not seen or even heard of a theory of why Mr. Gonzales is being singled out,” LaHood said. “We’ll get into that more when we see the discovery. But that’s going to be a long process.”
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.
Gonzales’ next court hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. September 16.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.
