Adrian Gonzales, one of the first officers to respond to the 2022 attack, is charged with 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in a rare prosecution of an officer accused of not doing more to save lives. Authorities waited more than an hour to confront the teenage shooter.
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney has said the officer tried to save children that day.
Jury selection began Monday at a Texas courthouse where a long line of prospective jurors stretched outside before the proceedings got underway.
Potential jurors were given a list of questions asking what they knew about the law enforcement response and their impressions of what happened, as well as whether they contributed money to Uvalde victims.
Judge Sid Harle told several hundred potential jurors that the court was not looking for jurors who know nothing about the shooting but wants those who can be impartial. The trial was expected to last about two weeks, he said.
The gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary.
Nearly 400 officers from state, local and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the school, but 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until a tactical team breached the classroom and killed the shooter, Salvador Ramos.
