Texas Rangers also spoke about law enforcement tactics from the stand on Monday in Nueces County.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Testimony resumed Monday in the trial of former Uvalde CISD Officer Adrian Gonzales, with jurors hearing emotional accounts from the sole survivor of one of the classrooms targeted in the Robb Elementary School shooting.
Monday marked the sixth day of testimony in the Nueces County courtroom, as prosecutors continued presenting their case against Gonzales, charged with 29 counts of abandonment or endangerment of a child. Gonzales was among the first officers to arrive at the school during the May 24, 2022, attack that killed 19 children and two teachers.
The day’s testimony included continued questioning of Arnulfo Reyes, a teacher in classroom 111 who survived the shooting. Reyes told jurors he had turned on a movie for his 14 students shortly before the gunman entered.
“I saw a black shadow,” Reyes testified. “The black shadow was holding a gun. And I know that he was holding a gun because I just saw the fire come out.”
Reyes said he was shot before the gunman turned his weapon on the children in the classroom. None of the students survived.
“He hit me on my arm, and that’s when I fell to the ground,” Reyes testified. “And then after I fell onto the ground, he came around and he shot the kids.”
Earlier Monday, three Texas Rangers took the stand as prosecutors sought to show that Gonzales failed to act despite hearing gunfire inside the school.
Prosecutors questioned law enforcement witnesses about active shooter training and expectations for officers responding to gunfire.
“So when an officer hears shooting but can’t see shooting, what does the officer do?” one prosecutor asked.
“What would you do?” Texas Ranger Scott Swick responded. “I would make the best decision I could and go towards those shots.”
Another witness testified that training standards emphasize isolating and neutralizing the threat.
The defense has maintained throughout the trial that Gonzales acted based on the information available to him at the time. Defense attorney Nico LaHood used a foam orange handgun during questioning to discuss tactical decision-making and officer safety.
“A police officer that is dead is no good to anybody, right?” a defense attorney asked.
“That’s correct,” Swick responded.
Victims’ families were present in the courtroom Monday as jurors were shown graphic images and surveillance video from the shooting. At times, Gonzales appeared visibly emotional as the footage was played.
Testimony is scheduled to continue Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the Nueces County Courthouse.
Previous testimony
Teachers, Texas Rangers investigators and parents of Robb victims were among those who testified in the trial’s first week.
“I just hear more shots. They were nonstop,” Amy Marin, a former teacher at the Uvalde school, said on the stand. “I thought, ‘He’s going to kill me.'”
A colleague, Lynn Deming, told jurors she tried to warn nearby classrooms.
“I heard the classroom next door was kind of loud. They didn’t know anything, and so I opened the adjoining doors and I said, ‘Be quiet and get down,’” she said.
Last Tuesday saw another teacher, Stephanie Hale, provide controversial testimony, prompting an attempt by the defense team to push for a mistrial. A judge later rejected that bid.
In the early hours of the trial, prosecutors argued Gonzales failed to protect Robb children when he didn’t make a move to prevent the carnage. He arrived at the scene of the school shooting but didn’t try to distract or engage the gunman, special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements of the trial.
The officer only went inside Robb Elementary “after the damage had been done,” Turner said.
Defense attorneys disputed the accusations that Gonzales — one of two officers charged in the aftermath of the 2022 attack — did nothing, saying he radioed for more help and evacuated children as other police arrived.
“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” defense attorney Nico LaHood said. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
About the case
The high-stakes trial, expected to last as long as three weeks, represents the first criminal court proceedings in connection with the 2022 shooting at Robb and its botched law enforcement response. Then-Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo is also charged with child abandonment/endangerment, but his trial date has not yet been set.
As testimony began this week, tissue boxes were brought to the families of victims. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first 911 calls, but as they heard the voices become more frantic, the cries in the courtroom were inescapable.
The trial was moved to Corpus Christi after Gonzales’ attorneys argued he could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.
Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway.