UVALDE, Texas – Two former Uvalde CISD officers who pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to protect kids during the Robb Elementary shooting appeared in a Uvalde County courtroom Monday afternoon.
Nineteen kids and two teachers were killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022. Law enforcement took 77 minutes to confront the shooter.
Former Uvalde CISD officer Adrian Gonzales is indicted on 29 counts of abandoning/endangering a child, while former Uvalde CISD police chief Pete Arredondo faces 10 counts of abandoning/endangering a child. State jail felonies are punishable by up to two years in a state jail.
Gonzales made his first appearance in court in July 2024.
Arredondo waived his arraignment. Earlier this month, he asked a judge to throw out the charges.
In their motion to toss out the indictment, Arredondo’s lawyers say school districts and their employees don’t have a duty to protect students from third-party threats. The lawyers also point out that the children were already in danger when Arredondo responded.
On Friday, Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell filed a response saying that Arredondo “endangered children” because of specific actions he took as the incident commander that delayed the response of law enforcements.
Arredondo shouldered much of the blame from the public in the aftermath of the shooting after Texas Department of Public Safety officials said he assumed command of the scene and made the decision not to breach the classroom containing the gunman.
Arredondo’s indictment states that he failed to enforce the school district’s active shooter response plan, “thereby delaying the response by law enforcement officers to an active shooter who was hunting and shooting” children inside a classroom.
An evidentiary hearing in the case is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Dec. 19.