Several former Robb Elementary teachers gave harrowing testimonies Thursday about terror, training, and even bravery as they recalled details about the fateful May 24, 2022, mass shooting at their school in Uvalde, Texas, that led to the deaths of 19 students and two of their peers.
Nicole Ogburn, who was a fourth-grade teacher at Robb Elementary at the time, told the court that while she was lying on the ground and hiding in her classroom with her students, one of her students crawled on her back and rubbed her arm, telling her, “It’s going to be OK, Ms. Ogburn.”
Ogburn’s testimony was just one of several accounts prosecutors called upon Thursday in the trial of Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde school police officer who is facing 29 counts of child endangerment for what prosecutors are saying was his failure to act and follow his active shooter training. Gonzales, one of the first police officers on the scene that day, has pleaded not guilty.
The teachers on Thursday recalled following their own active shooter training and getting into lockdown as soon as they knew there was a threat on campus. Lynn Deming told the court how brave her fourth-graders were while hiding from the shooter, saying her students are “the strongest, bravest people on this Earth.”
Deming walked the court through the day of the shooting, saying that she was leading her kids outside for recess when one of her students told her a coach was yelling. She instructed her students to get back inside when she heard what she thought were fireworks.
“I just thought it was something bad,” Deming said.
Deming then told the students to hide while she closed her blinds. That’s when shots went through her classroom’s window, and she was hit with debris. She had a hole in her shirt, as well as blood. She said one of her students told her that she had been shot.
“I was just telling them to pray,” Deming said. “I told them I loved them. And I just kept saying, ‘Babies, I love you. Just pray. I love you.’ I wanted to tell them it would be OK, but I wasn’t sure. I just wanted the last thing they heard was that somebody loved them. I think I said it a million times. I just kept saying, ‘I love you.’”
Amy Marin-Franco, an after-school program coordinator who had only been at Robb Elementary for a month, recalled hiding in her classroom and hearing gunshots outside.
“The shots wouldn’t stop,” a tearful Marin-Franco said. “They were just going round after round. A round would go off and then there was total silence. And then another round and total silence. And one of those times it was silent, the AC kicked on and I said, ‘Don’t turn on, I’m not going to hear him when he comes, just wait.’ And you just hear more shots. They were nonstop. I thought, ‘He’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me. I’m going to die. I’m going to die.’ As I’m under the counter, I’m looking at the floor and thinking I’ll tackle him from his ankles and knock him down with my shoulder. And then I’ll get up on the counter when he comes in and jump on his back and poke his eyes out and take his gun away from him.”
Marin-Franco explained that she was helping another teacher carry supplies into the school when she saw a car crash into a ditch. She called 911 and started running toward the crash to offer help. That’s when she saw two other men from the nearby funeral home running away from the crash, yelling that the man had a gun. Marin-Franco said she started running back toward the school, alerting other teachers to what was happening and helping students get into classrooms safely.
The audio from Marin-Franco’s call to 911 was then played, and the court could hear her frantically telling the operator that a shooter was approaching the school. She told the court that the shooting “haunts” her to this day.
Shortly after the shooting, officials blamed Marin-Franco for leaving a door open through which the shooter entered the school, which Marin-Franco has denied several times. During her testimony on Thursday, she said that while she had initially propped open the door with a rock, she kicked the rock out of the way and closed the door before retreating to her classroom to hide. The head of the Texas Department of Safety eventually retracted the statement blaming Marin-Franco.
However, about five months after the shooting, Marin-Franco told ABC News that she was “suffering mentally,” and had gained a stutter and a tremor.
Stephanie Hale, a former third-grade teacher at Robb Elementary, continued her testimony from Tuesday. The prosecution and defense had gone back and forth after Hale revealed on Tuesday that she saw the shooter approach the school from the south side. She had apparently never mentioned that before — neither in her grand jury testimony nor her interview with police four days after the shooting. The defense noted that the prosecution didn’t hand over that detail to them in preparation for the trial. Judge Sid Harle told the jury to disregard Hale’s testimony entirely, but he also thanked Hale and told her she did nothing wrong.
The court also briefly heard from Jose Hill, Jr., who lived across from Robb Elementary and filmed a quick video of the shooter entering the school. The video was played for the court, marking the first time the court had seen the shooter.
The court also heard testimony from Agent Huy Nguyen of the FBI, who testified about where the bullets landed.
