Prosecutors Indict First Set of Uvalde Shooting Response Officers

Pete Arredondo was indicted for his part in the police response to the 2022 Uvalde Robb Elementary School shooting. The incident left 19 children and 2 teachers dead. Arredondo was indicted for his alleged failure to identify the incident as an active shooting situation and failure to follow active-shooter training. Arredondo faces 10 counts of abandoning and endangering a child. Mr. Arredondo was arrested and released on a $10,000 bond. 

Arredondo was among the first officers to arrive at Robb Elementary. The gunman was already firing at children and teachers. Arredondo and other school district officers retreated after the gunman fired at them. Thereafter, several police officers amassed in the hallway seemingly without any direction or concern. The officers gathered outside were from a dozen agencies, including Border Patrol, state police, and sheriff’s deputies. It took the officers about 30 minutes to breach the classrooms. The gunman was finally killed 77 minutes after the shooting had begun.  

Adrian Gonzales, one of the first officers to enter the building after the shooting began, was also indicted on 29 charges of abandoning and endangering a child. Gonzales allegedly failed to act even after hearing gunshots as he stood in a hallway. Gonzales was also booked into jail briefly and released on bond. 

Arredondo and several other officers were eventually terminated after the shooting. Separate investigations by the Department of Justice and state lawmakers allege that law enforcement botched the response. 

Criminal Negligence

Arredondo and Gonzales are among the first law enforcement personal that have been criminally charged for failing to prevent a mass shooting. Law enforcement have been given some level of immunity based on the theory that law enforcement should not be hindered by fears of lawsuits from having to make split second decisions. However, Uvalde proves just how hollow this idea was and that even law enforcement can potentially be liable for criminal negligence.  

 Criminal negligence occurs when an individual’s conduct is an extreme departure from the way in which a reasonable person would have acted in the same or similar situation. Criminal negligence is more than a simple mistake in judgment or inattention. The negligence must be egregious such that it results in harm to a person. Common infractions for criminal negligence include drunk driving or living a child in a hot car.  

It may be arguable that not every person would run into a room knowing there is someone with a loaded gun on the other side. However, Arredondo, Gonzales, and all the other officers who were standing in that hallway were armed and armored. Many of the police officers in the local agencies had trained for a school shooting incident at that very school. They even bragged about it on their department’s social media. Moreover, parents that were outside the school outside wanted to go in even though many of them were unarmed and lacked the equipment that the officers had. There was absolutely no excuse for these officers behavior. Arredondo and Gonzales may be the first officers indicted over this failure but hopefully they will not be the last.  

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If you have sustained a personal injury through the unlawful act of another, then you should contact a personal injury attorney. A skilled personal injury lawyer near you can review the facts of your case, go over your rights and options, and represent you at hearings and in court.