Uvalde sergeant recounts entering Robb Elementary with Gonzales

(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) -- Jurors on the trial of former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales listened to a firsthand account of the emergency response from a police sergeant who tried to enter Robb Elementary School with Gonzales.

Prosecutors allege Gonzales, who is charged with child endangerment, did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 surviving students. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argue he is being unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day. It took 77 minutes before law enforcement mounted a counterassault to end the rampage.

Former Uvalde Police Sgt. Daniel Coronado was called as a state witness, but he appeared to defend some of Gonzales' actions during the May 24, 2022, mass shooting.

"He was yelling at them to be careful, because the shooter was on that side of the building from the information that we had, and I think he was concerned with officers approaching," Coronado testified on Thursday about first seeing Gonzales. "He was trying to get around to see what was going on."

Coronado said that he tried to enter Robb Elementary with three other officers -- Gonzales, Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo and a third -- once they realized the shooter had gone in the school. Jurors also saw body camera footage of their actions.

"As we are making our way through the hallway, it's dark. There are no lights on. It's extremely quiet, we don't hear anything," Coronado said, noting that the hallways smelled like gunpowder and the walls were "perforated" by bullets.

Coronado said they heard gunfire when they were in the hallway and saw another officer retreat after being hit on the back of his head.

"He yells out, 'He's in the classroom over here to my left,'" Coronado said.

Within seconds of the gunman firing from inside a classroom, Coronado said that Gonzales and Arredondo tried to use their radio to request support from SWAT.

"Would that be the opposite of confronting the shooter?" prosecutor Bill Turner asked.

"The opposite? No, I think we were trying to formulate a plan to confront the shooter, and that would be to call SWAT," Coronado responded.

After they retreated from inside the school, Coronado said Gonzales was covering the east side of the building in case the gunman jumped out of the building.

On Wednesday, jurors heard testimony from Michael Witzgall, an instructor who taught Gonzales a class on active shooting response, SWAT tactics and hostage negotiations.

"We've got to stop the killing. There's no other way I have to say that, folks. You can't wait for backup," Witzgall said, speaking to the jurors as if they were his students. "In my opinion, in the way I train people, you don't have time to wait. You've got to make a move."

During a lengthy cross examination, defense attorney Nico LaHood pressed Witzgall about whether a 40-hour training response fully prepared Gonzales for the real thing.

Dad Christopher Salinas also testified on Wednesday about the physical and mental impact the shooting took on his son, Samuel.

Samuel still has shrapnel embedded in his thigh and the wound has left him in constant pain, Salinas said.

Salinas testified that hearing popping sounds, arguments and slamming doors and seeing the color red triggers memories of the shooting for Samuel.

"Mr. Salinas, is the child that you picked up from the hospital on May 24 the same child that was taken to school that day?" District Attorney Christina Mitchell asked.

"No," he answered.

Arredondo -- the on-site commander on the day of the shooting -- is also charged with multiple counts of endangerment and 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.

ABC News' Juan Renteria contributed to this report.

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