After the 2022 shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, police officers were widely condemned for failing to act in time to prevent those deaths. The gunman was not stopped until 77 minutes after the assault began, when members of the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit breached a classroom door and shot him dead.

Outrage at the timid, desultory response to that attack resulted in criminal charges against Pete Arredondo, the school district's police chief, and one of his officers, Adrian Gonzales, whose trial began this week in Corpus Christi. Gonzales, who was suspended along with the rest of the department after the shooting and had officially left his job by the beginning of 2023, faces 29 counts of child endangerment—one for each of the 19 fourth-graders who were killed and one for each of the 10 students who survived. Since each count is a state jail felony punishable by six months to two years of incarceration, Gonzales could receive a lengthy sentence if he is convicted. But while the anger underlying this case is understandable, the legal basis for it is dubious.

An indictment that an Uvalde County grand jury approved in June 2024 cites Article 22.041(c) of the Texas Penal Code, which applies to someone who "intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence, by act or omission, engages in conduct that places a child" in "imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment." According to the indictment, Gonzales did that by failing to intervene in a way that might have impeded or stopped the gunman.

The indictment says Gonzales, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, heard gunshots outside the school, knew "the general location of the shooter," and had "time to respond." Yet he "failed to engage, distract or delay the shooter" or try to do so "until after" the gunman entered two classrooms and started shooting the children there. He also allegedly "failed to follow" or "attempt to follow" his "active shooter training."

Special prosecutor Bill Turner elaborated on that description in his opening statement at the trial on Tuesday, saying a coach at the school directed Gonzales toward the gunman. "His shots are ringing out," and Gonzales "knows where [he] is" yet "remains at the south side of the school" while "the gunman makes his way up the west side of the west building where the fourth-graders are," Turner . Gonzales stayed where he was, Turner added, even after the gunman "fired shots into a classroom full of children" from outside, after he fired into another classroom, and after he entered the school, when there was "a break in the shooting."