CNN details key moments in Uvalde officer trial (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Some new exclusive reporting about a story we've been following from the beginning about the minutes leading up to the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 kids, two teachers dead. Former Uvalde school official, police officer Adrian Gonzalez, is on trial. He's facing 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment. Now, prosecutors alleging that he failed to follow his training despite being told where the shooter was before the gunman entered the school and began killing kids. Gonzalez's attorneys argue only the shooter is responsible for the deaths. CNN's Shimon Prokopez, who's done remarkable reporting, has exclusive reporting again tonight looking at what Gonzalez did during those crucial moments on May 24, 2022.

[00:00:41] Speaker 2: When you guys made that entry into the hallway, there was four of you. Did anyone in that group of four say, hey, we need to go down this hallway and we need to find this shooter? No. No? No. Okay. Did you think about that or did it ever cross your mind?

[00:00:59] Speaker 3: It did cross our mind, you know, but we just never, nobody ever made, you know, we're just covering each other. You know, that's what basically we're doing.

[00:01:09] Speaker 4: That's Adrian Gonzalez in an interview with investigators the day after the shooting. It was video obtained by CNN through sources. Now on trial for child endangerment, prosecutors argue Gonzalez should have done more to try and stop the shooting before the gunman can make entry inside the classroom. Our team analyzed his movements using unredacted body camera and security footage after we obtained the entire investigative file. It shows opportunities to stop the gunman before he entered the classroom might have been missed.

[00:01:42] Speaker 5: Jump to the fence. They're going to be in the school.

[00:01:44] Speaker 4: Gonzalez arrives on scene here less than two minutes after the shooter began walking toward the school with an AR-15. You can see his white cop car slowed down where the gunman crashed this truck, then speed up toward the school. The shooter at this point is still outside now in the school parking lot. As he pauses among the cars, Gonzalez drives right past him. And when you drove through, did you see anybody?

[00:02:10] Speaker 3: I didn't see anybody.

[00:02:11] Speaker 4: Gonzalez continues to the school south entrance and slams on his brakes. What happens next is not captured on camera, but is recounted by Gonzalez and a school coach, Melody Flores, who saw Gonzalez pull up.

[00:02:25] Speaker 3: I made contact with her and she tells me he's over here. She's pointing this way. He's over there. He's dressed in black. I go, where? And she goes to the teacher parking lot. I want to say I saw a black car at that end. And then I started hearing the rounds go off and then like banging, like somebody hitting a metal door. I can't see nothing because it's behind the building. I can't see it. So I notify everybody on the radio the best I could.

[00:02:52] Speaker 4: At that time, the gunman was still outside the school firing his AR-15 at the walls. The coach also told investigators about this conversation with Gonzalez. She was unable to identify which officer she spoke to during the interview.

[00:03:07] Speaker 6: That's when one of the cops in his car just slams his brakes there. And I'm telling him, I said, he's going into the fourth grade building. We need to stop him. We need to do something. And he comes out and he's panicking too. He's running back and forth. And I told him, I said, we need to go in. We need to stop him before he goes in.

[00:03:31] Speaker 4: It's now a race to stop the killing before it could even begin. But Gonzalez, armed with his Glock pistol, calls for cover and warns fellow officers to stay back.

[00:03:42] Speaker 5: Get over, guys. Get over. Shots fired.

[00:03:44] Speaker 3: Under my radio, I don't know if I brake. I said, hey, shots fired. Shots fired. I robbed school. And then I tell him, you know, the general location where he's at. So I start moving up, trying to get from front of my vehicle to the back. There was the only thing that was a tree and then a building. So I started walking towards there and then I see an officer, one of the PD officers coming. And then all of a sudden I see, like, glass coming out and firing. You know, somebody firing at glass. A couple of rounds come out of the glass and I tell the PD officer, get back. It's coming from over there. As the rounds are being fired, is there a reason why you don't fire? Because I don't see where the rounds are coming from. I know they're coming from the back over here. I just don't know where they're coming from.

[00:04:36] Speaker 4: Gonzalez does not find the shooter who has made his way to the west door, which was unlocked. The shooter is now inside, more than a minute after Gonzalez arrived on scene.

[00:04:49] Speaker 6: And then by the time he knew it, he already had made his way into the fourth-grade building. And all you heard, it was just shots, shots, shots. And I told him, I said he, and I did cuss, you know. And I am going to say, you know, he f***ing made it into the fourth-grade building. He's in there already. You know, we need to do something. We need to stop him, stop him.

[00:05:09] Speaker 4: Twenty-three seconds after the gunman entered the school, he would use his high-powered rifle to unleash more than a hundred rounds. One of the worst school shootings in American history was unfolding. CNN analysis of body camera video from arriving officers shows that Gonzalez did not enter the school for another two and a half minutes. When he did enter, it was more than four minutes after driving onto the scene. He's behind another officer and just in front of the chief of the Uvalde School Police, Pete Arredondo. While officers were finally approaching the classroom from the other end of the hallway, the gunman fires at them, and they all retreat, even though the gunfire had stopped. The gunman would be left alone with those children and teachers, some dead or dying, for 77 minutes. A key part of prosecutors' evidence against Gonzalez is his interview with investigators, where Gonzalez admits he made a mistake.

[00:06:08] Speaker 3: Now that I can sit back, I went tunnel vision, like I said, with the lady that was running. Like I said, they said they were running to the school, and that's where I saw, and I knocked in on her. That was my mistake, but it was just the adrenaline rush going, and shots fired, and stuff like that.

[00:06:31] Speaker 1: Shimon joins me now from Corpus Christi, where the trial is taking place. I want to go back to your exclusive reporting, the fact that there was this crucial information given to the arriving officer, the shooter was still outside. Has any of this come up yet at the trial?

[00:06:45] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's actually interesting, Anderson. The prosecution started presenting their case today, so obviously they addressed it in opening statement. But it was really interesting to watch the defense team try to go through this entire timeline that we just presented and try and explain how there was so much confusion and how difficult it was, really, for this officer to really figure out what was going on. So it seems like the defense here right now is using this timeline, trying to use this timeline for their advantage.

[00:07:12] Speaker 1: The thing I don't understand is, I mean, everybody knows the training for law enforcement in any police department is whoever the first officer is on the scene, you get one or two or three of them, and you go in. And you have to stop the shooting as soon as possible, because everybody usually is killed within the first minutes.

[00:07:32] Speaker 4: Yeah, and in many cases, it's not even waiting for anyone. You yourself have to go in. But the big question here is, yes, there were failures here in how they responded, but does it rise to criminal negligence? That's something that this jury is going to have to grapple with. But, you know, Anderson, there was a major development here today that I think it's important to mention. There was a witness that was testifying, a schoolteacher that was testifying, and she presented evidence, new information that she had seen the shooter on the day of the shooting, and that was new to the defense. They said they had never heard of this, and this could potentially cause a mistrial here. It's unclear if the defense is going to ask for that, but that is certainly something that they could. The judge has canceled testimony tomorrow to deal with this issue, and we'll see what the defense here does and what they ask for. But it's certainly just another moment here in this Uvalde situation for these families to have to deal with yet another significant development that really just causes so much pain for them over just how things have been handled here.

[00:08:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what these families have been through. Shimon Prokofiev, thank you very much.