An interview between former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales and a Texas Ranger the day after the deadly May 24, 2022, mass shooting at Robb Elementary School was presented as evidence on Tuesday, an emotionally charged sixth day of testimony in Gonzales’ trial. The ex-cop is accused of not following his active shooter training on a day that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
In the interview with Texas Ranger Ricardo Guajardo one day after the shooting, Gonzales — who was assigned to Uvalde’s high school and was at a nearby park at the time — said he drove to Robb Elementary after receiving a radio call that there was someone with a gun on campus. Once there, he said he located a person he believed was the threat, but learned that she was a coach for the school, not the shooter. This coach then told Gonzales the shooter’s whereabouts. Gonzales said he looked around and heard gunshots, but didn’t see the shooter.
Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school police chief at the time, and other officers showed up on campus and entered the school. Gonzales said he didn’t go into the school until he had cover.
The defense asked Guajardo, who was in court Tuesday, if Gonzales could have been explaining the timeline.
“I don’t think I can tell you what his intent was when he said he didn’t go in because then I’d be assuming this is what he meant,” Guajardo said.
More evidence revealed that Gonzales actually taught an active shooter training course to fellow police officers just two months before the shooting at Robb Elementary. The prosecution argued that once Gonzales knew the shooter was inside the school, he should have entered with or without cover.
Outburst In The Court
Tensions rose after Joe Vasquez, a deputy for the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office, testified about confronting the shooter.
Vasquez said he was off-duty on the day of the shooting, but when he received a text from other sheriffs about a shooter on campus, he headed straight to Robb Elementary, even though it wasn’t part of his jurisdiction. Once he arrived on scene, Vasquez said he ran inside and “linked up” with other officers. He asked if they wanted to enter the classroom where the shooter was believed to be hiding, to which they said no.
Vasquez became emotional during his testimony as he recalled waiting with the other officers, wondering if his daughter, who was in the second grade at the time, could have been in the classroom.
Vasquez and the other officers waited for about an hour until Border Patrol agents arrived. Then they breached the classroom door. Vasquez recalled entering the classroom and not being able to see much because it was dark.
“As soon as I make entry, I realize I don’t have a flashlight. I can’t even see. So I look to my right, and there’s a pile of the bodies,” Vasquez said, holding back tears.
Police then shot and killed the shooter.
After the gunfire stopped, Vasquez left to look for his daughter. They were reunited at the civic center.
The defense questioned Vasquez about going into a “fatal funnel,” a term police have used throughout the trial to describe a narrow passage officers might enter that would involve serious risk, like the school’s hallway or classroom. Vasquez said that entering a “fatal funnel” means the person is going to die.
After Vasquez was finished testifying, a family member of one of the victims began yelling from the gallery. She was later identified as Velma Lisa Duran, the sister of Irma Garcia, one of the two teachers who died in the mass shooting.
Duran called out that her sister had entered the “fatal funnel.”
“Did she need a key?” Duran shouted. “Why do you need a key?”
Judge Sid Harle ordered her removed from the courtroom and threatened to issue a mistrial.
Ana Coronado, the mother of Maite Rodriguez, who was killed in the mass shooting, wrote Tuesday on Instagram that Duran’s outburst was “extremely selfish” because of the possible mistrial outcome.
“The world knows how hard it has been for us to reach this point, and actions like this put everything we have fought for at risk,” Coronado wrote.
More Emotional Testimony
Two teachers also testified about how they responded during the mass shooting.
Elsa Avila, a former fourth-grade teacher at Robb Elementary, said she was about to take her students outside for a race when one of them told her she had seen others in the hallway screaming and running to their classroom. Avila said when she looked in the hallway, she didn’t see anything, but immediately put her students in lockdown. As she was directing students where to go, Avila was shot.
Avila fell to the floor and crawled around, looking for her phone to text someone for help. She said most of her students remained quiet; however, some told her that they loved her and that she was going to be OK.
“The pain was getting more and more, and I couldn’t answer them anymore,” Avila said. “I couldn’t reassure them. I couldn’t comfort them because I was trying hard to keep it in, the pain. I didn’t want to move and start yelling. I knew I had to stay quiet and stay calm so they could as well.”
Avila cried as she recounted hiding with her students.
“I didn’t want them to see me die in front of them,” she said to the court.
Erin Robin, a former second-grade teacher at Robb Elementary, testified that when she got word from another teacher that there was a man with a gun on campus, she told her students to get into lockdown. They all hid underneath a table.
“I thought to myself: I’m going to die today,” Robin said, while crying. “I felt like a sitting duck, just waiting to die.”
Robin also gathered and stacked desks to build a wall in front of her students. When she heard voices outside her classroom door, she crawled over to look out the door’s window and saw police officers.
“My first thought was: The good guys are here,” Robin said. “The police are here. We’re going to be OK. They’re here. They responded.”
She crawled back to her students and told them it was going to be OK. Police eventually evacuated Robin and her students.
