Ex-Uvalde school officer Adrian Gonzales faces child endangerment charges in the Corpus Christi trial related to the tragic 2022 school shooting.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It’s been more than three-and-a-half years since a gunman barged into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and opened fire, killing 19 students and two teachers inside.
The law enforcement failures were documented in the weeks and months after the shooting. Uvalde CISD Officer Adrian Gonzales was indicted in 2024 on child endangerment and abandonment charges. He is on trial this week in Corpus Christi. Jury selection began Monday, Jan. 5. Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo was also indicted on those charges. His trial date has not been set yet.
Thursday, court abruptly sent into recess after Judge Sid Hearle said a juror had a family emergency to attend to. Testimony resumed at 9 a.m.
Throughout Gonzales’ trial, we’ll keep a running account of events as a team of our reporters and reporters from our sister stations follow the happenings. You can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage on our free streaming app.
Friday, Jan. 16 Live Updates
12:15 p.m. Defense attorney Nico LaHood asks if Gonzales’ action of running toward the school when the situation was unfolding makes him “a person of action.” Hill says yes, it does.
12:10 p.m. The defense is once again making the point that the initial responding officers did not have certain crucial information that was being communicated at the time to dispatch. The timeline presented by Hill details each communication, so they are going through point by point on which officers knew which communications.
12:02 p.m. The prosecution once again objects to the defense “badgering the witness.” The objection is sustained and LaHood moves on.
12 p.m. Defense attorney Nico LaHood describes the animation shown in court earlier as Hill’s opinion. Hill is emphatic when responding that the animation is not his opinion, it is derived from the data compiled by several months of investigation. LaHood insists it is opinion, which prompts the prosecution to object based on “asked and answered.” Objection is sustained.
11:55 a.m. The defense asks the witness why some of the information he gave to the state for the investigation was corrected two months before the trial. Hill said he noticed the sounds seemed to be coming from further away than initially thought. There is more back and forth as to where the other officers were when the first got to the scene.
11:50 a.m. The defense is pointing out that the timeline in the report does leave out some key details and points out that the officers on the scene had no way to know certain information.
11:40 a.m. Defense is asking the witness to clarify some of the times presented during the direct examination testimony. Defense believes one of the times in the timeline is one second off. Hill says he said those times were approximate in his testimony.
11:32 a.m. The prosecution asks Hill if civilian lives are to be prioritized in an active shooter situation. Hill answers yes. Prosecution passes the witness.
11:30 a.m. The prosecution is asking Hill what an officer’s responsibility is when there is an active shooter.
Prosecution: “If an active shooter is in room 111 and 112, an officers duty is stop the killing, stop the dying?”
Hill: “Correct”
11:25 a.m. Hill described “tunnel vision” during times of high stress and crisis, which makes it difficult to see anything that is in your peripheral vision. It also affects hearing, so prepare the body to defend against a particular threat.
11:20 a.m. After the animation concludes, Hill is confirming some of the details of where each officer responded in those first few minutes. The Uvalde PD officers reportedly fanned out to try to find the gunman and relocated toward the sounds of the gunshots. Defense attorney Nico LaHood notes that he believes the prosecution is leading the witness.
11:05 a.m. The prosecution is playing an animation of the first few minutes of the crime that is synced up with audio so the jury can hear the sounds recorded that day in the context of where they were taking place. The audio includes the sounds of gunfire, radio activity from law enforcement and Amy Marin’s 911 call.
11:02 a.m. Witness Nick Hill is pointing out places on a map where various responding officers entered the building. He also discussed the 911 call from Amy Marin, who called to report the initial crash outside the fourth grade building. During her phone call, radio traffic could be heard, which added more information about the times officers arrived on the scene.
10:55 a.m. Court resumes with questioning of Hill after the defense made an objection. The objection was overruled.
10:40 a.m. Court takes its morning break.
10:35 a.m. Adrian Gonzales entered the building from the south door at 11:35 a.m. At that point, the gunman had fired 117 shots total, most of those from inside room 111. The witness said some of those shots caused sheetrock to break and send sheetrock dust into the hallway, indicating that the shots came from inside that room.
10:30 a.m. The witness confirmed the gunman entered the school building at 11:32, which was one minute and four seconds from the time Adrian Gonzales pulled up and parked at the school. The gunman entered room 111 just one minute after entering the school. The gunman did fire 21 shots into the hallway before going into room 111.
10:22 a.m. At that point, the casings seem to show the gunman is moving quickly away from the area where Gonzales pulled up. About halfway up along side the building is where the backpack dropped. The witness said three other Uvalde PD officers arrived around that time.
10:17 a.m. Hill said it took him about a year to analyze the timings on each of the dozens of bullets that were fired. The prosecution makes the point that this information is useful to determine when Gonzales arrived on scene and whether bullets had already been fired at that point. The witness said two shots had been fired by the time Gonzales’ vehicle pulls up to the school and parks at 11:31 a.m..
10:15 a.m. The prosecution asks the witness to confirm that fired cartridges is an obvious sign that a gunman has fired shots, making the point that the law enforcement on the scene should have known this was an “active shooter” situation.
10:10 a.m. The prosecution is asking how he knows the difference between cartridge casings from the shooter’s weapons versus law enforcement weapons. Hill said the guns are different and that would create different styles and types of bullet holes. The witness is shown charts of the ammunition inventory found at the scene and asked to confirm those.
10:07 a.m. A screenshot from a residential video (shown in court last week) which shows that the shooter dropped a backpack along the outer wall of the school. The witness confirmed that was the shooter’s backpack.
10:04 a.m. The witness is shown the map (below) of the crime scene and is confirming where some of the photos he took were taken.
10:02 a.m. Hill confirmed that evidence showed that Adrian Gonzales initially entered the school through the south door.
10 a.m. The prosecution is asking about room 111, which is where several victims were found. The witness said it was not likely that bullet defects found in classroom 24 came from shots fired in room 111.
9:50 a.m. Hill was able to see from an officer’s body camera that there were bullet defects all along the west wall, including the window of classroom 104. He also found a black backpack belonging to the shooter about halfway from the south side of the school to the place where the gunman entered the school.
9:46 a.m. Hill pointed out some bullet hole locations on a map provided by the prosecution. The cartridge casings he photographed show the path the shooter took to get into the school. He pointed out there were five defects, or places where bullets hit the wall or window, at room 102. There were eight fired cartridge casings nearby to that location.
9:40 a.m. The witness also analyzed video from the funeral home across the street from the school. He said the time stamps on the surveillance video is two seconds off from his iphone which he used to take a photo of the video system. iPhone time is synchronized to the atomic clock.
9:32 a.m. Texas Ranger Nick Hill, now with the Department of Homeland Security, takes the stand. He arrived in Uvalde the day of the shooting and prepared victims to be transported to the medical examiner. He took photographs of the interior of the 4th grade building.
9:29 a.m. Allen was asked about distance between shell casings and whether the scanner was able to differentiate where the shell casings were. Allen said the scanner can see flags that represent shell casings but not necessarily see the shell casings. Allen is dismissed as a witness.
9:25 a.m. The defense is now questioning Allen. The Leica scanner is described as a “line of sight” device and was used at 145 different points to create the specialty map of Robb Elementary. The witness said these points and distances don’t tell what kind of stress, perception, or what responding officers can see.
9:20 a.m. The prosecution is questioning Allen on positions and locations to give the jury of better picture of where Gonzales was during his response to the shooting. Allen is giving several measurements and indicating scope on a map that was created using the “Leica” scanner.
9:12 a.m. Ranger Allen has specialty experience analysing crime scene evidence through 3D scanning. He creates virtual scenes with the scanner. He used the technology to map the Robb Elementary crime scene to show distances.
9:10 a.m. Court resumes in the trial of Adrian Gonzales. The first witness called today is Cody Allen of the Texas Rangers.
8:45 a.m. Court TV reports that Juror 9 has been excused and replaced with Alternate Juror #1.
8:30 a.m. Testimony is expected to resume at 9 a.m. after court was abruptly ajourned Thursday due to a juror’s family emergency. An alternate juror was expected to be sworn in.