Uvalde victim’s dad reacts to acquittal: ‘We had a little hope, but it wasn’t enough’
A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24,2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 05, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(UVALDE, Texas) — Javier Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie was killed in the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting, said he feels failed again after a jury on Wednesday night acquitted former school district police officer Adrian Gonzales on all 29 counts of child endangerment.
“We had a little hope, but it wasn’t enough,” Cazares said outside court. “Again, we are failed. I don’t even know what to say.”
Prosecutors had alleged Gonzales did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 students who survived the May 24, 2022, Robb Elementary School mass shooting. Gonzales’ lawyers argued he was unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day.
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 rollercoaster since day one. I am pissed,” he said.
Jackie’s uncle, Jesse Rizo, 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.”
Jackie’s aunt, Julissa Rizo, pushed back on the defense narrative that Gonzales responded as best he could, telling ABC News, “That’s not true.”
“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,” she said.
Defense attorney Jason Goss told reporters that he believes the acquittal clears Gonzales’ name.
“The evidence showed that not only did he not fail, but he put himself in great danger,” Goss said.
Gonzales told ABC News he plans on “picking up the pieces and moving forward.”
Defense attorney Nico LaHood said he will continue to pray for the victims’ families.
“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 ignore that. We acknowledge that,” he said. “We’re just going to continue to pray for them.”
Cazares said he will attend the trial of the other officer charged, former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo.
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. His 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.
ABC News’ John Quiñones and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A record number of Americans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, AAA said.
AAA predicts 81.8 million people will travel during the holiday period (between Tuesday, Nov. 25, and Monday, Dec. 1), which is a 1.6 million jump from last year.
Thanksgiving — which falls on Thursday, Nov. 27 — comes just weeks after the 43-day-long government shutdown that caused massive flight cancellations across the country, but airlines say they’re not expecting any residual impacts during the holiday.
Here’s what you need to know:
Air travel AAA anticipates 6 million people will fly within the U.S. over Thanksgiving — up 2% from 2024.
Sunday, Nov. 30, is predicted to be the busiest air travel day, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium, with 3,280,652 domestic seats.
But flight bookings for Nov. 26 through Nov. 30 are down 3.3% compared to last year, Cirium said, likely due to uncertainty from the government shutdown.
American Airlines says it will operate more than 80,000 flights over the Thanksgiving period, with its busiest day expected to be Sunday, Nov. 30.
United Airlines said it is expecting its highest number of Thanksgiving travelers ever this year. The airline warned that its busiest days are forecast to be Sunday, Nov. 30, Saturday, Nov. 29, and Monday, Dec. 1.
The busiest U.S. airports are expected to be Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Denver International Airport, according to Hopper.
Road travel AAA predicts at least 73 million people — nearly 90% of Thanksgiving travelers — will go by car to their destination.
Renting a car this Thanksgiving will be 15% cheaper than last year, according to AAA.
The busiest days on the roads are expected to be Tuesday, Nov. 25; Wednesday, Nov. 26; and Sunday, Nov. 30, AAA said.
The best time to hit the road ahead of Thanksgiving is before noon on Tuesday, Nov. 25, or before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 26, according to analytics company INRIX. Traffic will also be light on Thanksgiving Day.
When you’re heading home, the best times to drive are: before 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28; before 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 29; before 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 30; or after 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 1, INRIX said.
Sean Grayson fatally shot Sonya Massey while responding to her 911 call for help. (Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office)
(PEORIA, Ill.) — The trial began on Wednesday of Sean Grayson, the former sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the July 2024 fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 to report a possible intruder at her home in Springfield, Illinois.
The Sangamon County deputy was charged with a total of three counts in connection with Massey’s death — first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.
Grayson’s attorney, Daniel Fultz, declined to provide comment to ABC News ahead of the trial, but confirmed on Friday that his client has “pleaded not guilty to all charges.”
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser, who delivered opening arguments on Wednesday for the prosecution, walked the jury through key moments during the night that Massey died.
“Make no mistake, we are here in this courthouse today because of the actions of Sean Grayson,” Milhiser said. “On July 6, 2024, in her kitchen, without lawful justification, he shot and killed [Sonya Massey]. That’s why we are here.”
“You will see captured on video what happens when the defendant gets mad at a woman who is standing in her own kitchen calling for help,” he added.
Milhiser said that prosecutors will show the jury the body camera footage, which shows the incident from the point of view of Grayson’s partner, who also responded to the scene. The footage released by Illinois State Police shows the incident from the partner’s point of view because Grayson did not turn on his own body camera until after the shooting, according to court documents reviewed by ABC News.
“The defendant does not turn on his bodycam — Which is a pattern you’ll see throughout this trial,” Milhiser said.
Meanwhile, Grayson’s attorney Daniel Fultz, who delivered opening arguments for the defense on Wednesday, urged jurors not to make up their minds early about this case.
“Making your mind up early closes the possibility you will miss facts that will affect your decision,” Fultz said, arguing that Grayson “believed that he would suffer great bodily harm or death” during his encounter with Massey.
“Ms. Massey made the decision to lift the pot of boiling water above her head to attempt to throw that at Dept. Grayson. It was at that moment and only at that moment that Dept. Grayson discharged his weapon,” Fultz said.
“What happened [to] Ms. Massey was a tragedy. But it was not a crime,” he added.
Witness testimony also began on Wednesday in the trial, which is being held in Peoria, Illinois.
The trial began with jury selection on Monday, where a panel of 12 jurors was seated, according to ABC News’ affiliate in Springfield, WICS. The process took more than five hours and ended with a jury made up of nine white women, one Black man and two white men, as well as two white men and one white woman selected as alternate jurors.
The trial was moved from Sangamon County to Peoria County due to extensive media publicity.
What the video shows
Body camera footage of the incident released by Illinois State Police on July 22, 2024 shows Massey telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me,” once she answered their knocks on her door.
“I don’t want to hurt you; you called us,” Grayson responded.
Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points out a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”
Massey then appears to pour some of the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” video shows.
Grayson threatens to shoot her, the video shows, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, and Grayson shoots her three times, the footage shows.
Massey died from a gunshot wound to her head, according to an autopsy report released in July 2024, Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon confirmed to ABC News.
Prosecutors alleged that Grayson discouraged his partner from retrieving the medical kit to render aid to Massey after the shooting because he allegedly thought the injuries were too severe to revive her.
“No, headshot, dude. She’s done. You can go get it, but that’s a headshot,” Grayson tells his partner after he says he is going to retrieve the medical kit, body camera video shows. “What else do we do? I’m not taking pot boiling water to the [expletive] face and it already reached us,” Grayson adds.
The judge in the case ruled during a pre-trial hearing last month against the defense’s request to exclude body camera footage that shows what happened after Massey was shot, according to WICS.
Grayson said he feared for his life during his encounter with Massey, according to documents released by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office in August 2024.
“While on scene, I was in fear Dep. (redacted) and I were going to receive great bodily harm or death. Due to being in fear of our safety and life, I fired my duty weapon,” Grayson wrote in his field case report.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Massey’s family, said during a statement at the time that the autopsy confirmed that this was an “unnecessary, excessive use of force, completely unnecessary, certainly not justified.”
Crump said that Massey struggled with her mental health and body camera footage released in Sept. 2024 shows her interacting with officers on July 5 — 16 hours before she was fatally shot — after her mother called 911 to report that her daughter was having a mental health episode.
A review of the case by the Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force. Garyson was fired in July 2024 by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office after he was indicted in this case.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
Cattle are shown at the Cattlemen’s Columbus Livestock Auction in Columbus Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has pushed back against President Trump’s plan to increase beef imports from Argentina, calling it “misguided.”
The group, which describes itself as “the national trade association representing U.S. cattle producers,” said in a statement that “efforts to manipulate markets only risk damaging the livelihoods of American cattlemen and women, while doing little to impact the price consumers are paying,” calling it “a misguided effort to lower the price of beef in grocery stores.”
“The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and its members cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices,” said NCBA CEO Colin Woodall in the statement, in part.
“If President Trump is truly an ally of America’s cattle producers, we call on him to abandon this effort to manipulate markets,” he added.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One earlier this week that buying beef from Argentina “will bring our beef prices down” while also helping Argentina economically. On Wednesday, the president posted on his Truth Social online platform that American cattle ranchers “have to get their prices down,” and that they “don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil.”
The NCBA said in their statement that the U.S. already has a deep beef trade imbalance with Argentina.
“During the past five years, Argentina has shipped beef valued at more than $800 million to the U.S., while purchasing only $7 million of U.S. beef,” the statement said, adding “It is imperative that President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins let the cattle markets work.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told ABC News Wednesday that he was concerned about the impacts of increasing foreign beef imports.
“We’ve got all the folks that are ranchers in my state that are handling beef. They would tell you firsthand American beef is the best beef in the world. That’s why we work hard to be able to export it,” he said.
“The president worked very hard to be able to open up Australia and Japan and other places to increase American beef going in there because the world wants American beef. So I’m a big proponent of raising more American beef to solve America’s issues,” Lankford further said.
Eight House Republicans also sent a letter to the White House Tuesday, expressing their concerns about President Trump’s plans to increase beef imports from Argentina.
“While we recognize the importance of strong trade relationships and diverse markets, our producers are seeking clarity on how this decision will be made, what safety and inspection standards will apply, and how this policy aligns with your administration’s commitment to strengthening American agriculture,” the letter reads, in part. It was signed by representatives from Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas.
Last week, the president announced a $20 billion bailout for Argentina’s foundering economy, prompting questions as to why the U.S. would commit billions to boost the economy of a foreign country when thousands of American farmers are suffering.
