Trial begins for Uvalde school policeman over mass shooting response in which 21 people died

Families participate in a candlelight vigil in 2023 dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24, 2022, during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Photo / Getty Images

The trial began today of a former police officer charged with shying away from tackling the gunman who killed 21 people, including 19 children, at a Texas school in 2022, United States media reported.

The case against Adrian Gonzales is a rare example of an attempt to hold a law enforcement officer accountable for their actions during a mass shooting.

Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed in the city of Uvalde on May 24, 2022, when a teenage gunman went on a rampage with an AR-15 style assault rifle at Robb Elementary School, in what was America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade.

Former school district police chief Pete Arredondo also faces charges over the tragedy but will be tried separately.

The official response was heavily criticised after it emerged that more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour outside classrooms where the shooting was taking place and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.

A total of 376 officers - border guards, state police, city police, local sheriff departments and elite forces - responded to the massacre, a Texas state lawmakers’ report said in July 2022.

The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was reportedly killed by law enforcement officers at the site of the attack.

Jury selection was underway in the trial against Gonzales, who faces 29 criminal counts of child endangerment - one for each of the 19 children who died and for the 10 students who survived.

US media reported that the indictment charges he “failed to engage, distract or delay the shooter” after hearing shots.

Arredondo faces 10 counts for allegedly delaying the official response.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Judge Sid Harle said he expected the trial in Corpus Christi, 320km from Uvalde, to last around two weeks, ABC News reported.

-Agence France-Presse