Uvalde officer’s acquittal shifts focus to the next case over police response to attack

By JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — With the acquittal in the first Texas trial over the hesitant police response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, prosecutors must now decide how to try their case against the only other officer who was charged.

Adrian Gonzales’ trial was a rare prosecution of an officer accused of failing to save lives by preventing a crime. For nearly three weeks, Uvalde County’s district attorney laid out a case to jurors how Gonzales did nothing to stop the gunman and bore responsibility for failing to protect the 19 fourth-graders killed in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

But jurors found Gonzales not guilty after seven hours of deliberations, leaving Pete Arredondo, Uvalde’s former schools police chief, as the only officer still facing trial over the response to the May 24, 2022, attack, which also killed two teachers.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell declined immediate comment Thursday on plans to proceed against Arredondo, but legal experts sai...