A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Jury selection begins today in the Texas trial of a former Uvalde school district police officer. He's charged in connection with the failed law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in 2022. Here's Texas Public Radio's Jerry Clayton.
JERRY CLAYTON, BYLINE: Adrian Gonzales faces 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child for his alleged inaction during the response. According to the indictment, Gonzales failed to, quote, "engage, distract or delay the shooter" and failed to follow his active-shooter training to confront the gunman. He's pleaded not guilty on all charges. Several of the victim's family members will be at the trial in Corpus Christi, including Manuel Rizo, the uncle of 9-year-old fourth-grader Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the attack.
MANUEL RIZO: We're going to hope that the prosecution - the prosecutors, the district attorney and the people that owe this to their constituents - do their job, and they do a damn good job of it.
CLAYTON: The Cazares family is one of 21 families who sued the city of Uvalde over the shooting when 19 students and two teachers were killed. Hundreds of law enforcement officers from several agencies responded. But federal and state reviews described the response as a failure because officers waited over an hour to confront the gunman. Kirk Burkhalter, a professor of law at New York Law School, says in the public's mind, the trial will be about more than just endangerment, but the concept of bravery.
KIRK BURKHALTER: Now, keep in mind bravery, a hero - that's not someone who is not in fear. As a matter of fact, that someone in the face of great fear for personal safety was able to overcome those fears and take action.
CLAYTON: Rizo hopes the trial will provide much-needed closure for the families.
RIZO: But we want them to highlight every single opportunity Adrian had to protect the children and teachers, and the survivors.
CLAYTON: Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo is the only other officer to be indicted. He's awaiting a separate trial.
For NPR News, I'm Jerry Clayton in San Antonio.
(SOUNDBITE OF PATRICK O'HEARN'S "BEYOND THIS MOMENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.