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The Robb Elementary Massacre
● Case Closed
Mass Shooting
Uvalde, Texas
May 24, 2022
21 Lives Taken
02
The Fallen
Victim Information
Teachers
Eva Mireles
Teacher, Age 44
Eva Mireles
Eva Mireles was a fourth-grade teacher at Robb Elementary who had taught for 17 years. She was known for her love of running, hiking, and spending time with her daughter Adalynn. She coached cross-country and was remembered by colleagues and students alike for her warmth and dedication. She taught alongside Irma Garcia in the same fourth-grade classroom for five years.
Eva was 44 years old. She is survived by her husband Ruben Ruiz, a Uvalde police officer who was present at the scene, and her daughter Adalynn. Her cousin Mia Cerda first publicly confirmed her death on Twitter on the day of the shooting.
Irma Garcia
Teacher, Age 48
Irma Garcia
Irma Garcia had taught fourth grade at Robb Elementary for 23 years. She was known for putting her students first and was a 2019 finalist for the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching. She loved barbecuing with her family, listening to music, and spending time with her husband Joe and their four children.
Irma was 48 years old. Her son later reported that she was seen shielding her students. Two days after her death, her husband Joe Garcia died of a heart attack. Their family said he died of grief. They had been married for 24 years.
Students
Alithia Ramirez
Student, Age 10
Alithia Ramirez
Alithia Ramirez was 10 years old and loved to draw. Her grandmother Rosa Maria Ramirez described her as a very talented little girl. An illustration Alithia created had been featured on the Uvalde school district website as a winner of a bullying prevention poster contest. The drawing was titled "Kindness Takes Courage." She had dreams of becoming an artist and had written to a professional artist in Spain who wrote back to her.
Amerie Jo Garza
Student, Age 10
Amerie Jo Garza
Amerie Jo Garza was 10 years old. Her father Angel Garza, a first responder who arrived at the scene, learned of her death while helping other children. She had just received straight As on her report card and had been celebrated at school the week before. Classmates and family remembered her as brave; she had reportedly tried to call 911 during the attack. She loved animals and wanted to become a veterinarian.
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez
Student, Age 10
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez was 10 years old and was killed alongside her cousin Jacklyn Cazares. The two girls were in the same classroom and were inseparable. Annabell loved swimming and wanted to become a marine biologist. Her family remembered her as a joyful and caring child who lit up every room she entered.
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio
Student, Age 10
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio was 10 years old. Her mother Kimberly Rubio had dropped her off at school that morning and bought her a treat for making the honor roll. Alexandria had asked her mother to promise they would go swimming that afternoon. She loved cheerleading, basketball, softball, and track. Her parents testified before Congress in the weeks following the shooting, advocating for gun safety legislation in her name.
Eliahana 'Elijah' Cruz Torres
Student, Age 9
Eliahana 'Elijah' Cruz Torres
Eliahana Cruz Torres, known to her family as Elijah, was 9 years old. She loved baseball, the Houston Astros, and being outdoors. Her family described her as full of energy and always on the move. She was one of the youngest victims of the massacre.
Eliahna García
Student, Age 9
Eliahna García
Eliahna García was 9 years old. Her aunt Siria Arizmendi, an elementary school teacher in the same district, described her as very happy and very outgoing. She loved to dance and play sports, was big into family, and enjoyed being with her sisters. She wanted to be a cheerleader, loved playing basketball, and loved making TikToks. She was about to turn 10 and was already looking forward to her quinceañera. She was the second oldest of five girls.
Jacklyn Cazares
Student, Age 9
Jacklyn Cazares
Jacklyn "Jackie" Cazares was 9 years old and was killed alongside her cousin Annabell Rodriguez. Her father Javier described her as a tough-minded firecracker who was always looking to help people in need. She had not yet reached her 10th birthday. Jackie loved softball, fishing, and being around family. Her parents became prominent advocates for gun safety legislation in the years following the shooting. Her mother Gloria Cazares was present in the courtroom at the acquittal of Adrian Gonzales in January 2026.
Jailah Nicole Silguero
Student, Age 10
Jailah Nicole Silguero
Jailah Nicole Silguero was 10 years old. Her aunt Yvonne White described her alongside her friend Nevaeh Bravo as "Our Angels" in a Facebook post following the shooting. Jailah loved spending time with family and friends and was remembered as a bright and loving presence in the lives of those around her.
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos
Student, Age 10
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos was 10 years old. He loved playing video games and Minecraft and enjoyed spending time with his grandfather, for whom he brewed a pot of coffee every morning. His family remembered him as a thoughtful and devoted boy who found joy in small daily routines and in being with the people he loved.
Jose Flores Jr.
Student, Age 10
Jose Flores Jr.
Jose Flores Jr. was 10 years old. His family described him as the life of the party, a boy who loved video games and baseball. He was full of laughter and energy and had a gift for making everyone around him smile. He is survived by his parents and siblings who have spoken publicly about the joy he brought to their family every day.
Layla Salazar
Student, Age 11
Layla Salazar
Layla Salazar was 11 years old, one of the oldest students killed that day. She loved swimming, running track, and doing arts and crafts. Her father Vincent Salazar remembered her as a sweet and energetic girl who won 11 medals at a recent track meet and was proud of every one of them. She loved Taylor Swift and was always singing around the house.
Maite Rodriguez
Student, Age 10
Maite Rodriguez
Maite Rodriguez was 10 years old. She dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and had a pair of green Converse shoes on which she had written the words "B F F" with a marker. Those shoes were used by her family to identify her body. She loved animals and the outdoors and was passionate about science. Her mother remembered her as determined and curious, a girl who knew what she wanted from life.
Makenna Lee Elrod
Student, Age 10
Makenna Lee Elrod
Makenna Lee Elrod was 10 years old. She loved to play softball, do gymnastics, dance, and sing. She was described by her family as someone who brought energy and brightness everywhere she went. She had a wide circle of friends and a laugh that her family said they will never forget.
Maranda Mathis
Student, Age 11
Maranda Mathis
Maranda Mathis was 11 years old. She was one of the oldest students in the classroom that day. Her family remembered her as a caring and spirited girl who loved her friends and her community. She is survived by her family who have continued to speak her name in the years since the massacre.
Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo
Student, Age 10
Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo
Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo was 10 years old. Her aunt noted that Nevaeh's name is the word "heaven" spelled backward. Her cousin Austin Ayala told The Washington Post that her death felt like a nightmare they could not wake up from, and that her siblings had to wake up every day knowing she was no longer there. She was remembered alongside her friend Jailah Silguero as one of the angels taken that day.
Rojelio Torres
Student, Age 10
Rojelio Torres
Rojelio Torres was 10 years old. He loved playing video games and spending time with his friends and family. He was remembered as a cheerful and easygoing boy who was well-liked by his classmates. His family has continued to honor his memory in the years since the massacre.
Tess Marie Mata
Student, Age 10
Tess Marie Mata
Tess Marie Mata was 10 years old. She loved the Houston Astros and swimming. She was saving her allowance to buy a swimming pool for her family. Her older sister Faith Mata has become one of the most visible advocates for the Uvalde families in the years since the shooting, speaking publicly and testifying about her sister's life and the failures that cost it.
Uziyah Garcia
Student, Age 10
Uziyah Garcia
Uziyah Garcia was 10 years old. His grandfather Manny Renfro described him as a great kid who was good at football and had an amazing spiral throw. The two had spent spring break together just weeks before the shooting. His grandfather told reporters that Uziyah was funny, athletic, and full of life. He is one of the children whose face became part of the public memory of this massacre.
Xavier Lopez
Student, Age 10
Xavier Lopez
Xavier Lopez was 10 years old. He had just been celebrated at an honor roll ceremony at the school on the morning of May 24 and came home to show his mother his certificate before heading back for the afternoon. He loved swimming and was always making people laugh. His mother Felicha Martinez has become one of the most prominent voices among the Uvalde families, speaking at vigils, hearings, and public events in Xavier's name.
01
Overview
What We Know
On May 24, 2022, eighteen-year-old Salvador Ramos drove to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and carried out the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Before arriving at the school, Ramos shot and critically wounded his grandmother at her home. He then drove to the school, crashed his vehicle near the premises, and entered the building carrying a Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 semi-automatic rifle he had legally purchased at a local gun store on May 17, 2022, the day after his eighteenth birthday. He purchased a second rifle three days later.
Ramos entered through an exterior door that had been propped open by a teacher and made his way to two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms, rooms 111 and 112. The school had approximately 600 students enrolled in second through fourth grades, the majority of them Latino children from Uvalde and the surrounding community. The classrooms he entered were the rooms of teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed. Seventeen others were wounded. The students ranged in age from 9 to 11 years old. All of the victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom area at the time of the shooting. Both teachers died in the rooms where they taught. Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia had taught alongside each other for five years. Irma Garcia was seen shielding her students. Her husband Joe Garcia died of a heart attack two days later; his family said he died of grief.
From inside the classrooms, children called 911 repeatedly during the attack. One child called multiple times, told the operator what room she was in, reported that people were dead, and asked the police to come. Nearly 400 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded to the scene. They waited in the hallways and outside the building for 77 minutes before a Border Patrol tactical unit breached the classroom door and killed the gunman. Ramos was shot and killed on-scene.
The 77-minute delay was later determined by multiple federal and state investigations to have been a catastrophic failure of command, communication, training, and will. The on-scene commander, Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo, operated under the belief that the gunman had barricaded himself and was no longer actively killing. Investigators found this assessment was wrong and that children died during the period officers waited in the hall.
Ramos had no prior criminal record and no documented mental health history at the time of the attack. He had dropped out of high school due to poor attendance and had a documented history of being bullied. He had made threatening statements online in the period leading up to the shooting. He acted alone. He was 18 years old.
02
Chronology
Case Timeline
May 17, 2022
Ramos Legally Purchases First Rifle
One day after his eighteenth birthday, Salvador Ramos purchases a Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 semi-automatic rifle from a licensed dealer in Uvalde. No legal barrier exists to prevent the sale. He purchases a second rifle three days later on May 20.
May 24, 2022 — Morning
Grandmother Shot; Ramos Drives to School
Ramos shoots his grandmother at her home, critically wounding her. He then takes her vehicle and drives toward Robb Elementary School. He crashes the truck in a ditch near the school premises and exits on foot carrying his rifle and ammunition. A woman nearby calls 911 to report a man with a gun approaching the school.
May 24, 2022 — 11:28 a.m.
Ramos Enters the Building
Ramos enters Robb Elementary through an exterior door that had been propped open by a teacher. He proceeds down a hallway and enters the adjoining fourth-grade classrooms 111 and 112, the rooms of teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia. He begins firing immediately.
May 24, 2022 — 11:28 a.m. to 11:44 a.m.
Children Call 911; Officers Arrive and Wait
Children inside the classrooms begin calling 911. One child calls repeatedly, identifying her location, reporting deaths, and asking for police to enter. The first law enforcement officers arrive at the school within minutes of Ramos entering the building. Rather than immediately breaching the classroom, officers gather in the hallway. On-scene commander Pete Arredondo concludes the situation has shifted from an active shooter to a barricade scenario. Officers do not enter the classrooms.
May 24, 2022 — 11:44 a.m. to 12:44 p.m.
77 Minutes: Officers Wait in the Hallway
Nearly 400 officers from multiple agencies, including Uvalde Police, Uvalde CISD Police, Texas Department of Public Safety, and US Border Patrol, congregate at the school. Parents outside the perimeter beg officers to go in. Some parents are detained or physically restrained by officers. Body camera footage later shows officers standing in the hallway while gunshots can be heard and 911 calls from inside continue. No officer enters the classrooms for 77 minutes.
May 24, 2022 — 12:50 p.m.
Border Patrol Team Breaches the Classroom
A US Border Patrol tactical unit breaches the classroom door and engages Ramos. He is shot and killed on-scene. Officers begin pulling surviving children from the rooms. The attack is over. Nineteen students and two teachers are dead. Seventeen others are wounded.
May 26, 2022
Joe Garcia Dies
Joe Garcia, husband of slain teacher Irma Garcia, dies of a heart attack two days after his wife's death. Their family states publicly that he died of grief. The couple had been married for 24 years and had four children together.
July 2022
Texas House Investigative Committee Report Released
The Texas House Investigative Committee releases a 610-page report documenting the failures of law enforcement on May 24, 2022. The report concludes the law enforcement response was an abject failure and that proper action by officers could have saved lives. Pete Arredondo is fired by the Uvalde CISD school board the same month.
2022 — 2024
Legal Battle for Records; DOJ Report Released
A coalition of 18 news organizations sues the City of Uvalde, Uvalde County, and Uvalde CISD for access to body camera footage, 911 recordings, and investigative records. The Department of Justice releases its own report finding the law enforcement response was an uncoordinated failure and that unnecessary deaths resulted from the delay. Attorney General Merrick Garland states that the delay cost lives.
August 2024
Body Camera Footage Released
Following a court order, the City of Uvalde releases body camera footage from five Uvalde Police Department officers. The footage confirms officers standing in hallways while the attack was ongoing. It is later discovered the city failed to release all footage; a UPD sergeant retires after being placed on leave for the omission. Additional footage is released in October 2024.
June 2024
Arredondo and Gonzales Indicted
A grand jury indicts former UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo on 10 counts of abandoning or endangering a child and former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales on 29 counts of the same charges. Both are arrested and released on bond. Both plead not guilty. They are the only two officers criminally charged out of nearly 400 who responded that day.
January 5 to 21, 2026
Gonzales Trial — Not Guilty
The trial of Adrian Gonzales is held in Corpus Christi after being moved from Uvalde County. After nearly three weeks of testimony including accounts from surviving teachers and students, the jury deliberates for approximately seven hours and returns a not guilty verdict on all 29 counts on January 21, 2026. Families of the victims react with grief and anger in the courtroom.
As of May 2026
Arredondo Awaits Trial; Accountability Remains Unresolved
Pete Arredondo's trial has been delayed by an ongoing legal dispute between the Uvalde County District Attorney and US Border Patrol, which has refused to allow its agents to be interviewed or to cooperate with discovery requests in the state criminal case. No trial date has been set as of May 2026. Arredondo has been granted indigency status, meaning his legal defense will be funded with public money. The families of the 21 victims continue to pursue accountability through civil litigation, advocacy, and public testimony.
03
Law Enforcement
The Investigation
The investigation into the Robb Elementary massacre unfolded across multiple tracks simultaneously: the immediate criminal investigation into Salvador Ramos, the forensic processing of the crime scene, and a separate and sustained inquiry into the law enforcement response itself. The criminal case against Ramos was closed on the day of the shooting when Border Patrol agents killed him in the classroom. What followed was years of investigative and legal effort directed at understanding how nearly 400 officers came to stand in a hallway while children died.
The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas House of Representatives both launched independent investigations in the immediate aftermath. The Texas House Investigative Committee, chaired by Representative Dustin Burrows, produced a 610-page report released in July 2022 concluding that the law enforcement response was an abject failure and that officers had the ability and the equipment to breach the classroom far sooner than they did. The report documented failures in communication, command structure, training, and decision-making across multiple agencies.
The Department of Justice conducted its own review and released findings that echoed and expanded on the state investigation. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated publicly that the delay in law enforcement response cost lives. The DOJ report examined not only what happened on May 24 but the systemic conditions across agencies that allowed a single officer's flawed assessment to go unchallenged for over an hour while children and teachers were alive in the classroom.
The fight for documentary evidence was protracted. A coalition of 18 news organizations, including ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and KSAT, sued the City of Uvalde, Uvalde County, and Uvalde CISD for access to body camera footage, 911 recordings, radio transmissions, and investigative files. After years of legal proceedings and a court order, the City of Uvalde released its body camera footage in August 2024. The footage confirmed officers waiting in hallways while gunshots were audible and 911 calls from inside the classrooms were being received by dispatch. Only five of the 25 Uvalde Police Department officers who responded had their body cameras active; the footage from two of those cameras was initially withheld and only released after an internal audit. A UPD sergeant retired after being placed on leave for the omission.
Uvalde County released nearly seven hours of body-worn camera footage and more than 1,500 pages of documents in August 2025, providing additional detail about the chaos, miscommunication, and interagency confusion that characterized the response. The Uvalde CISD released its own records, including personnel files, text messages, and the school records of the shooter, in August 2025 following a court order. The Texas Department of Public Safety has continued to resist releasing its own records as of May 2026; litigation seeking their disclosure remains ongoing.
The civil litigation landscape has been extensive. Families of the victims have filed lawsuits against the City of Uvalde, Uvalde CISD, the State of Texas, and Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the rifle used in the attack. A lawsuit was also filed against FedEx and UPS alleging the companies transported ammunition to Ramos that contributed to the massacre. That petition is included in the documents below.
The criminal investigation into the law enforcement response produced two indictments in June 2024: former UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales, both charged with abandoning or endangering a child. Gonzales was acquitted in January 2026. Arredondo awaits a trial date as of May 2026, his case delayed by US Border Patrol's refusal to cooperate with state prosecutors seeking to interview the agents who were present on the day of the shooting and who were part of the tactical team that ultimately breached the classroom.
Crime Scene Documentation
Crime scene documentation — Robb Elementary School, May 24, 2022
Case Document
Texas House Investigative Committee Report — Robb Elementary School. A 610-page investigative report produced by the Texas House of Representatives examining the law enforcement response to the May 24, 2022 massacre. Released July 2022. Concludes the response was an abject failure and that lives were lost as a result of the delay in breaching the classroom.
Download Report (PDF) ↓
Case Document
Uvalde Robb Elementary School Report — 82-page official report documenting the events of May 24, 2022 and the subsequent investigation into the law enforcement response at Robb Elementary School.
Download Report (PDF) ↓
Civil Litigation Document
FedEx and UPS Final Petition — Civil lawsuit filed on behalf of Uvalde families alleging that FedEx and UPS transported ammunition to Salvador Ramos that was used in the massacre at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.
Download Petition (PDF) ↓
Body Camera Footage
Official body camera footage released by the City of Uvalde and Uvalde County following court orders. Published by KSAT 12, which received the records directly as part of the media coalition lawsuit settlement. The KSAT Uvalde Records hub contains the most comprehensive publicly available collection of footage, documents, and audio from the day of the shooting.
View KSAT Uvalde Records Hub ↓
04
Perpetrator
The Accused
Salvador Ramos
Perpetrator — Deceased
Date of Birth: May 16, 2004
Age at Time of Attack: 18
Hometown: Uvalde, Texas
School: Uvalde High School (dropped out)
Weapons: Two Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 semi-automatic rifles; legally purchased May 17 and May 20, 2022
Prior Criminal Record: None
Prior Mental Health Record: None documented
Status: Killed on-scene by US Border Patrol tactical unit, May 24, 2022
Case Disposition
Salvador Ramos was killed on-scene by a US Border Patrol tactical unit at approximately 12:50 p.m. on May 24, 2022, after 77 minutes inside the classrooms. No criminal case was brought; the perpetrator did not survive. He legally purchased both rifles used in the attack within one week of turning 18. He had no prior criminal record and no documented mental health history. He had made threatening statements online in the days before the attack. He acted alone.
Forensic Breakdown
Case Analysis
Offender Background and Pathway
Salvador Ramos fits a profile consistent with documented patterns in adolescent mass shooters: social isolation, a history of bullying, disengagement from educational institutions, and a period of planning preceding the attack. He had dropped out of high school due to poor attendance and had a documented history of conflict with peers. He had no prior criminal record and no formal mental health diagnosis, a pattern common in this category of offender where grievances are internalized rather than flagged through institutional systems. His online communications in the days before the attack included threatening statements that were not acted upon by those who saw them.
Weapon Acquisition and Legal Gaps
Ramos legally purchased two semi-automatic rifles within three days of his eighteenth birthday. Under federal and Texas law at the time of the attack, no waiting period, permit, or additional screening was required for an 18-year-old to purchase a long gun. The same individual could not legally purchase a handgun until age 21. The rifles purchased were Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 models, a category of firearm that has appeared in multiple mass shootings. The legal purchase of the weapons despite warning signs in his online behavior represents a documented gap in the screening infrastructure that existed at the time.
Target Selection and School Security
Robb Elementary was a soft target. The exterior door through which Ramos entered had been propped open by a teacher. The school had no armed resource officer present and limited physical security infrastructure. The selection of an elementary school is consistent with a category of mass shooter seeking maximum symbolic impact and minimal armed resistance. The choice of fourth-grade classrooms concentrated the attack on the youngest and most defenseless population within the building. Ramos had attended schools in the Uvalde district and had familiarity with the environment.
Duration of Attack and Survivability
The attack lasted 77 minutes from the time Ramos entered the building to the time the classroom was breached. This duration is extraordinary by the standards of active shooter events, the majority of which end within minutes either through law enforcement intervention or the shooter's own decision to stop. The extended duration was not a product of continued active fire throughout; Ramos had largely stopped firing before the breach. The critical question established by investigators is how many of the 21 victims died during the period officers waited and whether earlier intervention would have preserved lives. Multiple reports concluded that it would have.
Victimology
The 19 children killed ranged in age from 9 to 11 years old. The two teachers were 44 and 48 years old. All victims were in the same classroom area at the time of the attack. The community of Uvalde is predominantly Latino and working class; the victims reflect the demographics of that community. Both teachers died in their classrooms. Irma Garcia was reported to have shielded students with her body. Eva Mireles was shot while in the classroom and later died of her wounds. The deaths of the teachers in the act of protecting their students has been a central element of how the community and the public have understood and memorialized the events of that day.
Systemic and Institutional Failures
Robb Elementary represents a convergence of multiple systemic failures: gaps in the legal framework governing access to firearms by young adults; inadequate school security infrastructure; the absence of a functioning incident command structure among responding agencies; and a post-event accountability process that produced two criminal charges, one acquittal, and one unresolved trial out of nearly 400 officers present. The Texas House report, the DOJ review, and the subsequent criminal proceedings all document not isolated individual failures but cascading institutional breakdowns across law enforcement, school administration, and the legal systems meant to provide redress afterward.
05
Accountability
The Law Enforcement Failure
When Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022, the first Uvalde police officers arrived within minutes. They heard gunfire. They had weapons. They had body armor. They had the numbers. Nearly 400 officers from more than a dozen agencies eventually gathered at the school. For 77 minutes, they did not go in.
The decision not to breach the classroom was made by Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief who assumed command on-scene. Arredondo determined that the situation had shifted from an active shooter event to a barricade scenario, a classification that changes the tactical calculus for law enforcement. Investigators found this determination was wrong, was made without sufficient information, and was not challenged by any of the hundreds of officers present. No one countermanded the order. No one went in.
Body camera footage released after years of legal battles shows officers standing in the hallway while gunshots are audible and while dispatch is receiving 911 calls from children inside the classrooms. Parents who had rushed to the school pleaded with officers to go in. Some were physically restrained. Some were handcuffed. One father was pepper-sprayed. The husband of teacher Eva Mireles, a Uvalde police officer himself, was at the scene. He was told not to enter. He was disarmed by fellow officers when he tried.
The Texas House Investigative Committee concluded in its 610-page report that the law enforcement response was an abject failure and that officers had both the ability and the obligation to act sooner. The Department of Justice reached the same conclusion. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated publicly that the delay cost lives. Multiple federal and state investigations found cascading failures in command structure, interagency communication, training, and accountability at every level of the response.
It was not Uvalde police who ended the attack. It was a US Border Patrol tactical team that breached the classroom door at approximately 12:50 p.m. and shot and killed Ramos. The breach came 77 minutes after the first officers arrived. The Border Patrol agents who made entry have been central to the subsequent legal proceedings; US Customs and Border Protection has refused to allow those agents to be interviewed by state prosecutors investigating the response, a refusal that has directly delayed the criminal trial of Pete Arredondo.
The accountability process has been slow and largely unsuccessful. Pete Arredondo was fired by the school board in July 2022. He and former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales were the only two officers criminally charged out of nearly 400 who responded. Gonzales was acquitted in January 2026. Arredondo awaits trial with no date set as of May 2026. No officer from the Uvalde Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, or any other agency has faced criminal charges. The Texas Department of Public Safety has continued to resist releasing its own records from the day of the shooting.
Officers Charged
Pete Arredondo
Former Chief — Uvalde CISD Police Department
Role on May 24: On-scene incident commander
Fired: July 2022 by Uvalde CISD school board
Indicted: June 2024 — 10 counts of abandoning or endangering a child
Plea: Not guilty
Trial Status: No date set as of May 2026; delayed by US Border Patrol refusal to cooperate with discovery
Note: Granted indigency status March 2026; defense funded with public money
Body Camera Footage — Law Enforcement Response
Body camera footage from UPD Sgt. Daniel Coronado, released by the City of Uvalde in August 2024 following a court order. Coronado's footage represents the largest single portion of the released UPD footage at approximately two hours and captures elements of the law enforcement response including officers in the hallway during the period Ramos was inside the classrooms.
View Bodycam Footage — Sgt. Coronado (YouTube / KSAT) ↓
Adrian Gonzales
Former Officer — Uvalde CISD Police Department
Role on May 24: One of the first officers to arrive on scene
Age at Trial: 52
Indicted: June 2024 — 29 counts of abandoning or endangering a child
Plea: Not guilty
Trial: Corpus Christi, Texas — January 5 to 21, 2026
Verdict: Not guilty on all 29 counts — January 21, 2026
Defense: Nico LaHood and Jason Goss; argued Gonzales entered the building and that the failure was systemic, not individual
Body Camera Footage — Full Law Enforcement Response Compilation
Full compilation of body camera footage from the City of Uvalde's August 2024 release, published by KSAT 12. Includes footage from multiple officers showing the response in and around Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, including the period officers waited in the hallway and the eventual classroom breach.
View Full Bodycam Compilation (YouTube / KSAT) ↓
Accountability Status — As of May 2026
Two officers were criminally charged out of nearly 400 who responded. Adrian Gonzales was acquitted on all counts in January 2026. Pete Arredondo awaits trial with no date set; his case has been delayed by US Border Patrol's refusal to allow its agents to cooperate with state prosecutors. No officer from the Uvalde Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, or any other responding agency has faced criminal charges. The Texas Department of Public Safety has continued to resist releasing its own records from May 24, 2022. Civil litigation filed by families of the victims remains ongoing across multiple courts.
In Memoriam
They Are Not Forgotten
Twenty-one people went to Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, and did not come home. Nineteen of them were children between the ages of 9 and 11. Two of them were teachers who had spent their careers showing up every single day for kids in Uvalde. All of them were loved. All of them had people waiting for them.
They were kids who loved baseball and swimming and Taylor Swift and Minecraft. Kids who were saving up for a swimming pool and who brewed coffee for their grandparents every morning. Kids who wanted to be marine biologists and veterinarians and cheerleaders. Kids who had just gotten straight As and kids who had just won track medals and kids whose parents had dropped them off that morning with a hug and a promise to go swimming later. None of those promises got to be kept.
Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia were teachers. They had between them 40 years of service to children in Uvalde. They were in their classroom when it happened and they did not leave their students. Irma Garcia's husband Joe died two days later. Their family said he died of grief. They had been married for 24 years.
The families of the 21 have not been quiet. They have testified before Congress and spoken at vigils and sat in courtrooms and watched an officer get acquitted and kept going anyway. They have said their children's names in rooms where people did not want to hear them. They have demanded answers from institutions that have been slow to give any. They have done all of this while grieving in a way that has no end.
Eva Mireles. Irma Garcia. Alithia Ramirez. Amerie Jo Garza. Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez. Alexandria Aniyah Rubio. Eliahana Cruz Torres. Eliahna García. Jacklyn Cazares. Jailah Nicole Silguero. Jayce Carmelo Luevanos. Jose Flores Jr. Layla Salazar. Maite Rodriguez. Makenna Lee Elrod. Maranda Mathis. Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo. Rojelio Torres. Tess Marie Mata. Uziyah Garcia. Xavier Lopez. They were here. They were real. They are not forgotten.
Sources
Texas House Investigative Committee — Robb Elementary School Report, 610 pages (July 2022) | U.S. Department of Justice — Critical Incident Review: Active Shooter at Robb Elementary School | KSAT 12 Uvalde Records Hub — ksat.com/topic/Uvalde_Records | ProPublica / Texas Tribune — Uvalde investigative reporting series (2022 to 2026) | ABC News — Trial coverage, State of Texas v. Adrian Gonzales (January 2026) | Texas Tribune — "Ex-Uvalde officer acquitted of charges tied to shooting response" (January 21, 2026) | Texas Public Radio — "Judge grants indigency motion for Arredondo" (March 18, 2026) | CBS News Texas — "Former Uvalde school police officials face charges" (June 2024) | Associated Press — Uvalde shooting coverage (2022 to 2026) | KGUN9 / WBALTV / Texas Tribune — Victim photographs and profiles
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