Jim Leach began his law enforcement career in 1975, and he shares his insights as a Criminal
Justice Consultant for Golden Media Group. He served as a Special Agent in Charge for the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
A Texas jury has returned a verdict of Not Guilty in the case against former Officer Adrian
Gonzalez. He was charged with being responsible for the death of 19 students and 2 teachers in May 2022.
The Government accused Gonzalez of failing to follow the training he had received regarding
police response to an active shooter in a school environment. Prosecutors used evidence to show that the 18-year-old shooter was inside the school for 77 minutes after the first shot was fired before police neutralized him.
Gonzalez arrived on the campus 1 minute before the shooting started. The DA contended that he was taught to confront the threat and that, if he had followed the training guidelines, he would have saved many lives.
The defense pointed out that Gonzalez called for help and helped evacuate students from other areas of the school. When he was interviewed by investigators, Gonzalez said he got “tunnel vision” and made a mistake.
Apparently, the jury decided there was a difference between not following training protocol and committing a crime.
This ruling was similar to a similar case, the Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in
Parkland, Fla., in 2018, when 17 people , 14 of them students, were killed. The jury in that case
found School Resource Officer Scot Peterson not guilty of neglect of a child and culpable
negligence.
Attorneys in both cases have said that juries tended to become empathetic to the defendants after hearing them testify. There were discussions about how extremely high pressure situations sometimes affect decision making and performance. Defense attorneys also tend to point out the ease of making perfect decisions “in hindsight.”
The former Uvalde CISD Police Chief, Pete Arredondo, will be the next trial. He declared himself to be in charge of the situation upon his arrival at the scene. It will be interesting to see if a jury assigns more culpability to a commanding officer.
