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(UVALDE, Texas) — A jury has acquitted former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales for his response to the Robb Elementary shooting in May 2022.

After more than seven hours of deliberations, the jury returned a not guilty verdict Wednesday evening on all 29 counts of child endangerment.

As the verdict was read, Gonzalez bowed his head as he heard it. Several of those sitting in the gallery started crying. He hugged his lawyers, shook hands and appeared to be tearing up.

Gonzales was among the first officers to respond to the mass shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed. It took 77 minutes before law enforcement mounted a counterassault to end the rampage.

Prosecutors alleged Gonzales did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 surviving students.

Lawyers for Gonzales, who pleaded not guilty, argued he was unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day.

Ex-officer: Focused on ‘picking up the pieces’
When he walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday night after the jury acquitted him, Gonzales was a man of few words.

“I want to start by thanking God for this — my family, my wife and these guys — he put them in my path,” he told reporters, referring to his lawyers. “Thank you for the jury, for considering all the evidence.”

When ABC News’ John Quiñones asked him, “What does moving on look like to you?” he answered succinctly.

“Picking up the pieces and moving forward,” Gonzales said. 

Asked about the frustration of some of the families of victims about the verdict, defense attorney Nico LaHood said he’s “sorry that they feel that way” and vowed to pray for them. 

“We pray for them. We’re sorry that they feel that way. We understand that their separation from their loved one is going to be felt as long as they walk on this earth, and we don’t, we don’t ignore that. We acknowledge that we’re just going to continue to pray for them. So I’m very sorry that they feel that way,” he said.

According to LaHood — who said he spoke with some of the jurors after the verdict — the jury was saddened by the trial but couldn’t see through some gaps in the prosecution’s case.

“They were very mindful and deliberate,” LaHood said. “Obviously, they were saddened, because they know what the other families are mourning still, but they said there were a lot of gaps in the evidence, and some of it didn’t make sense.” 

Jason Goss, another attorney for Gonzales, told reporters that he believes the verdict clears his client’s name.

“The evidence showed that not only did he not fail, but he put himself in great danger,” Goss said. “So, you can imagine how somebody who has had the entire country look at him as somebody who was not willing to do his duty. He is a proud man who does do his duty. And he went in there. When it was time for him to go, he went in there.”

Families of the victims react

For Jacinto Cazares — whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie died in the shooting — the verdict was yet another instance of the legal system failing to deliver justice after one of the worst mass shootings in US history.

“We had a little hope, but it wasn’t enough,” he said outside the court. “Again, we are failed. I don’t even know what to say.”

Cazares said he was hopeful that the jury might have reached a different conclusion but “prepared for the worst.”

“I need to keep composed for my daughter. It has been an emotional roller coaster since day one. I am pissed,” he said. 

Jesse Rizo, Jackie’s uncle, told reporters he was concerned about the message the verdict might send to police officers who respond to future mass shootings.

“I respect the jury’s decision, but what message does it send?” he said. “If you’re an officer, you can simply stand by, stand down, stand idle, and not do anything and wait for everybody to be executed, killed, slaughtered, massacred.”

When asked about the defense case by ABC’s John Quiñones, Jackie’s aunt Julissa Rizo pushed back on the defense narrative that Gonzales acted heroically that day.

“The defense said he did as much as he could,” Quiñones said.

“That’s not true,” she responded. “There were two monsters on May 24. One was the shooter, and the other one was the one that never went in, that could have avoided this.” 

How the trial unfolded
Each of the 29 counts Gonzales faced carried a maximum penalty of two years in prison, and h. could have spent the rest of his life in prison if he was convicted.

Prosecutors claimed Gonzales had a unique opportunity to stop the carnage when he arrived and learned gunman Salvador Ramos’ location from a teaching aide. The aide testified that she repeatedly urged Gonzales to intervene, but said the officer did “nothing” in those crucial moments. Prosecutors also argued Gonzales failed to act once he got inside the school.

Before jurors were sent to deliberate, District Attorney Christina Mitchell gave an impassioned plea, saying, “I know this case is difficult, and it has been difficult. But we cannot continue to let children die in vain.”

The defense argued that Gonzales did everything he could in that moment — including gathering critical information, evacuating children and entering the school — and said Gonzales acted on the information he had. The defense also highlighted that other officers arrived in the same timeframe as Gonzales and that at least one officer had an opportunity to shoot the gunman before he entered the school.

This case marks the second time in U.S. history that prosecutors have sought to hold a member of law enforcement criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting.

In 2023, a Florida jury acquitted Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with child neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Peterson’s lawyers argued his role as an armed school resource officer did not amount to a caregiving post needed to prove child neglect in Florida, and that the response to the shooting was muddled by poor communication.

Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo — who was the on-site commander on the day of the Robb Elementary shooting — is also charged with endangerment or abandonment of a child and has pleaded not guilty. Arredondo’s case has been delayed indefinitely by an ongoing federal lawsuit filed after the U.S. Border Patrol refused repeated efforts by Uvalde prosecutors to interview Border Patrol agents who responded to the shooting, including two who were in the tactical unit responsible for killing the gunman at the school. 

“What happened to Uvalde on May 24 can happen anywhere, at any time,” she said. “If it’s going to happen, and if we have laws mandating what the responsibility of a law enforcement peace officer is for a school district, then we better be ready to back it up.”

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(NEW YORK) — Celebrities are dedicating their voices, time and talents to helping the island of Jamaica recover from one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever make landfall in the Atlantic basin.

On Oct. 28, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 mph. The monster storm then swept across western Jamaica, bringing catastrophic winds, flash flooding and storm surge throughout the island.

The destruction left in Melissa’s wake was extensive and widespread. Dozens of people were killed. Entire communities were either demolished or isolated from the direct hit. Power and water was cut off for much nearly 500,000 people. Debris and floodwaters littered roadways.

Officials made clear that the rebuilding process — still not complete from Hurricane Beryl’s impact in 2024 — would be lengthy. When prominent members of the entertainment industry got word of the devastation, they rallied to be of service.

“When I finally connected with some of my folks on the ground there, and they relayed the devastation … it definitely mobilized, for me personally, that I have to get boots on the ground to help,” Mona Scott-Young, famed producer of the “Love and Hip Hop” series, told ABC News.

On Monday, Scott-Young, along with rapper Busta Rhymes and actor and R&B singer Tyrese Gibson, flew to the island aboard a cargo plane filled with supplies.

Upon touching down, they immediately got to work — coordinating where the assistance was needed, getting their hands dirty and even using the gifts that made them famous to raise spirits within the community.

In Norwood, a community in St. James, Rhymes helped to rebuild a roof on a school, putting nails into the wood himself. In the underserved community of Flankers, Rhymes held an impromptu performance. A soccer game was also organized for the kids.

Over the multi-day mission trip, the aim was to lift spirits but also help those affected to gain a sense of normalcy.

“The spirit of the people of Jamaica is still there — just as strong,” Gibson said.

They worked with nonprofits such as Helping Hand for Relief and Development and the GrassROOTS Community Foundation, as well as local groups — a collective of people and organizations who love Jamaica.

Scott-Young “led the charge” and was instrumental in helping to organize such a large relief effort, Rhymes said.

Monday marked the second trip for Scott-Young and Gibson, who were on the ground in Jamaica within two weeks after Melissa battered the island.

They knew that once the hurricane passed, it wouldn’t be long before the public’s focus was no longer on Jamaica.

“We knew that people’s attention span towards the people of Jamaica was gonna be as short as it is on Instagram,” Gibson said.  

During the first trip, Scott-Young and Gibson helped to survey the landscape and assess the needs of the island, Gibson said.

When the pair arrived in Flankers, a neighborhood in Montego Bay, they came across a medical center that had no medicine.

That’s when they realized they needed to step up their efforts. Once Rhymes became involved, the scale of the project multiplied exponentially, Gibson said. While they brought about a half a pallet of supplies on the initial trip, they were equipped with more than 50 pallets this week due to Rhymes’s far-reaching influence, Gibson said.

It was “incredibly gratifying” for the group to show up to the bare medical center with medicine, diapers and other provisions needed to care for the community, Scott-Young said.

Each has a direct connection to the island, they said.

Rhymes is Jamaican and has family and friends — many of whom he grew up with — who were affected by the hurricane.

“My whole family is Jamaican,” Rhymes said. “Everything about Busta Rhymes that y’all have known to grow and love was bought up and raised in a Jamaican household.”

Scott-Young, who is from Haiti, felt an interconnectedness with another Caribbean nation, especially as a regular vacation spot for her family, but also knows personally knows people who have lost everything. Gibson has a close family friend who is Jamaican and said he feels a closeness to the culture and its people.

What they witnessed has changed them forever and inspired them to do more, they said.

“This was exactly what God asked me to do,” Gibson said.

The island is still in a state of devastation. People are sleeping on the ground under tarps, Scott-Young said. Basic necessities, including communication and WiFi, are not yet up and running. Diseases are starting to spread, as is a growing rodent problem.

Many communities, especially those on the hillsides, “have not been touched,” Gibson said. They still don’t have water, electricity or any significant aid because the focus is primarily on the epicenter, where the hurricane hit the hardest, Scott-Young said.

Future efforts will especially be focused on reaching the communities in the surrounding areas that have not been the priority over the past six weeks.

The three are already planning more trips to Jamaica and enlisting the assistance of other celebrities connected to the island. Rhymes commended artists Shaggy and Sean Paul, who are both Jamaican, on their endeavors to help their home island as well.

“We’re gonna continue to do our part,” Gibson said. “…The tragedy is not over.”

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Friday dismissed the death-eligible counts from Luigi Mangione’s indictment, clearing the way for his federal trial to begin in October.

“Tortured and strange” though she said her conclusion may be, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled stalking is not a crime of violence and, therefore, not a predicate to make the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a capital crime.

“No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct,” Garnett wrote. However, her opinion said that the U.S. Supreme Court requires her to analyze the allegations in a way that is “totally divorced from the conduct at issue.”

Garnett said crimes of violence must, by definition, involve force and, theoretically, stalking could be committed without it.

The defense wanted the death penalty taken off the table, arguing that stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted of the federal charges. The defense also argued that the decision to seek the death penalty was political and circumvented the federal government’s protocols.

Mangione, who is accused of stalking and killing Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges.

With the death penalty off the table, Garnett said Mangione’s federal trial will begin with opening statements on Oct. 13. Garnett said jury selection will begin on Sept. 8. 

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is separately trying to convince a state judge to put Mangione on trial on July 1, before the federal case.

Garnett on Friday also declined to suppress evidence seized from Mangione’s backpack when he was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This ruling will allow prosecutors to use key evidence at trial, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession.

Garnett said the search fell within multiple exceptions to the requirements for obtaining a search warrant, including the discovery of the weapon and the likelihood that the evidence would have been discovered inevitably. 

Mangione’s lawyers had argued the backpack search was illegal.

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

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