UVALDE, Texas — A Zavala County deputy whose daughter attended Robb Elementary School testified about joining law enforcement inside the building during the 2022 mass shooting, ABC reported.
Deputy Joe Vasquez took the stand on Jan. 13 in the trial of former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales, who is facing nearly 30 criminal charges over delays in law enforcement responses to the shooting.
Vasquez said he was off duty when he learned of the shooting. His daughter was a second-grader at the school.
“So, the active shooter you knew was in Uvalde?” a prosecutor asked Vasquez.
“Yes, sir,” Vasquez replied.
“And is that your jurisdiction?”
“No.”
“Is it your county?”
“No.”
“And yet you went?”
“Yes.”
Vasquez testified that he rushed to the scene, putting on a bulletproof vest over gym clothes and grabbing a rifle.
He described walking past multiple law enforcement officers and asking where the shooter was. The officers appeared confused and pointed in the general direction of a main school building. Vasquez followed their directions to reach his entry point. One pair of officers warned him that the shooter was firing out of school windows.
“So, when you found out that he was shooting, did that stop you from going forward?” the prosecutor asked.
“No, I just ran quicker,” Vasquez said.
Without a helmet or body camera, he entered the school building and joined a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team.
“Nobody stopped me,” he said.
He described entering the classroom where the shooter was located, telling jurors it was dark and difficult to see.
“I realized I didn’t have a flashlight. I can’t even see,” he said. “So I look to my right, and there’s a pile of the bodies.”
Vasquez said he expected immediate gunfire when the team entered but did not hear shots until a door creaked open. He fired several rounds during the exchange and later saw the shooter, who was dressed in all black, lying on the ground after being shot.
He recalled seeing a child in the classroom who appeared older than his daughter, leading him to believe she may not have been in the room.
“Once they flooded the classroom, I left to look for my daughter. I didn’t want to look in there [and] see her in there,” he said.
He eventually located her at a reunification center, according to the report.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Nico LaHood questioned Vasquez about Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, noting that initial officers entered the school and faced gunfire before retreating.
“You later found out that those five, those initial five officers, they didn’t even think of their own safety. They went in and they subjected themselves not only to this shooter, but to crossfire?” LaHood asked.
“Correct,” Vasquez responded.
Prosecutors, on redirect, focused on law enforcement duty in active shooter situations. When asked what officers are trained to do upon hearing gunfire.
Vasquez replied, “If there’s active killing going on, of course, you’re supposed to stop it.”
