How the charges against two Uvalde School police officers still frustrate some families

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Two charges against former school police officers in Uvalde, Texas, are the first fees against law enforcement for the botched operation that left hundreds of police officers waiting for more than an hour to confront an 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary.

For some families in Uvalde who have been demanding police accountability for the past two years, the charges brought a mix of relief and frustration. Some wonder why more police officers have not been charged, waiting to walk into the classroom where some victims lay dying or begging for help to bring a quicker end one of the worst school shootings in US history.

Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former police officer Adrian Gonzales were indicted by a Uvalde County grand jury on June 26 on multiple counts of child endangerment and neglect, alleging their actions and failure to immediately confront the shooter. They were among the first of nearly 400 federal, state and local officials to converge on the school that day.

“I want every single person that was in the hallway to be charged for failing to protect the most innocent,” said Velma Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the teachers killed. “My sister put her body in front of those children to protect them. They could have done it. They had the means and the tools to do it. My sister had her body.”

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell has not commented on whether additional officers will face charges or whether the grand jury’s work has been completed.

Here are some things you should know about the criminal investigation into the police response:

The shoot

The gunman stormed the school on May 24, 2022 and killed his victims in two classrooms.

More than 370 officers responded but waited more than 70 minutes before they could confront the shooter, even though he could be heard firing an AR-15-style rifle.

Terrified students in classrooms called 911 while desperate parents begged police to intervene. Some of them heard gunshots while standing in a hallway. Eventually, a tactical response team entered the classroom and killed the gunman.

Devastating Condition And federal Investigative reports into the police response catalogued “cascading failures” in training, communications, leadership and technology.

The fees

The Charges against Arredondothe commander on site at The shootaccused the police chief of delaying police intervention even though he had heard gunshots and learned that there were injured children in the classrooms and that a teacher had been shot.

Arredondo called a SWAT team, ordered the first police officers to leave the building and tried to negotiate with the 18-year-old gunman, the indictment said. The grand jury said it found his actions to be criminal negligence.

Gonzales was accused of abandoning his training and not confronting the shooter even though he heard gunshots in a hallway.

All charges are serious state crimes that, if convicted, can carry a prison sentence of up to two years.

Arredondo said in an interview with the Texas Tribune in 2022 that he tried to “eliminate any threats and protect the students and staff.” Gonzalez’s attorney on Friday called the charges “unprecedented in the state of Texas” and said the officer was convinced he had not broken any laws or school district policies.

The first U.S. police officer to stand trial for alleged inaction during a campus shooting was a sheriff’s deputy at a Florida campus who did not go into the classroom and confront the perpetrator of the 2018 Parkland massacre. The deputy, who was fired, was acquitted for severe neglect last year. A lawsuit by the families and survivors of the victims is still pending.

The complaints

The families are demanding that authorities be held accountable in other state and federal courts, and some of them have filed multiple civil lawsuits.

Two days before the second anniversary of the shooting, the families of 19 victims submitted a 500 million dollar lawsuit against nearly 100 state police officers who were involved in the botched operation. The indictment accuses the officers of failing to follow their training in the event of a shooting and of failing to confront the shooter. The highest-ranking Department of Public Safety official named as a defendant is the South Texas Regional Director, Victor Escalon.

The same families also reached a $2 million settlement with the city in which city leaders promised higher standards in the hiring and training of local police.

On May 24, a group of families sued meta platformswhich owns Instagram, and the maker of the video game Call of Duty claim that the companies are responsible for the weapons used by the teenage shooter.

They also filed another lawsuit against gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, which manufactured the AR rifle used by the shooter.