CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Testimony resumes this morning in the trial of a former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police officer Adrian Gonzales, who is accused of endangering or abandoning children during the Robb Elementary mas shooting.
No law enforcement officer in the U.S. has ever been convicted for their response to a mass shooting, making this trial potentially precedent-setting.
Testimony continued Thursday in the Uvalde school shooting trial, with teachers sharing harrowing accounts from Robb Elementary.
RELATED: Uvalde Trial: Teacher describes terrifying moments as gunfire erupted at Robb Elementary
Amy Franco, previously blamed for leaving a classroom door open, told jurors she did not leave it ajar.
A round would go off, and then there was total silence. And then another round and total silence,” Franco told jurors. “One of those times it was silent, the AC kicked on, and I said, don’t turn it on. I’m not going to hear him when he comes this way.
Franco said she mentally prepared herself to physically confront the gunman if he entered her classroom.
“I’m looking at the floor and I’m thinking I’ll tackle him from his ankles and knock him down with his shoulder,” she said.
Another teacher recounted being shot through a classroom window but protecting her students.
I heard shooting in the hallway,” she testified. “I just kept saying, ‘ Babies, I love you. Keep praying, I love you. I just wanted the last thing they heard was that someone loved them.
Later in the day, teacher Nicole Ogburn testified she saw a man dressed in black outside the school, carrying a backpack and pointing a gun toward the playground and pavilion area. Ogburn also recounted a moment that brought the courtroom to silence, describing a child who tried to comfort her as she attempted to protect students hiding under a counter.
I was laying on my stomach, and he crawled onto my back and laid across me, rubbed my arm, and told me, Ms. Ogburn, it’s gonna be okay,” she testified.
Meanwhile, teacher Stephanie Hale’s recorded DPS interview was excluded after discrepancies with her earlier testimony raised defense concerns.
Judge Sid Harle instructed jurors to disregard the recording, noting inconsistencies are common after traumatic events. The judge reassured the teacher she did nothing wrong.
Court proceedings resume at 9 a.m.
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Gonzales has pleaded not guilty, and if convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.