ST. NIKOLAUS, Germany (AP) — Santa's elves start early in Germany.
Three postal workers set off Saturday on their nearly 3,000-kilometer (1,860-mile) bicycle journey from St. Nikolaus, Germany, to the small town of Rovaniemi, Finland, which is home to Santa Claus Village, according to German news agency dpa.
The cyclists are traveling north to bring letters and Christmas wish lists addressed to Santa Claus from St. Nikolaus, in Germany’s Saarland state, to the winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.
St. Nikolaus himself, with his long purple cape and a tall golden staff, was on hand Saturday to hand over the letters to the three elves. The trip will take roughly two weeks as the three cycle through Germany, Denmark and Sweden en route to Finland, dpa reported.
The group is among the Deutsche Post volunteers who answer letters from children worldwide — more than 30,000 annually — that are addressed to the St. Nikolaus post office, which has its own postal code.
The tradition dates back to 1967, and each reply features a special stamp.
The town of St. Nikolaus is one of seven places in Germany with a Christmas-themed name, all of which receive letters addressed to Santa Claus or Saint Nick.
This year, St. Nikolaus handed over his own wish list to the cyclists, dpa reported.
He's hoping for a reply from Santa Claus in Finland.
A postal employee rides past a waving Santa Claus on his bike in St. Nikolaus, Germany, Saturday Aug. 9, 2025 as three Post employees set off on their bikes to visit Santa Claus in Lapland in northern Finland where they want to cover almost 3,000 km to deliver previously collected wish lists to Santa Claus. (Uwe Anspach/dpa via AP)
Santa Claus hands a postal envelope to Post employee Simone Nehring in St. Nikolaus, Germany, Saturday Aug. 9, 2025. (Uwe Anspach/dpa via AP)
Santa Claus hands a postal envelope to the three Post employees Simone Nehring, from left, Artur Hajduk and Ralf Schüttler in St. Nikolaus, Germany, Saturday Aug. 9, 2025 as they prepare to set off on their bicycles to visit Santa Claus in Lapland in northern Finland where they want to cover almost 3,000 km to hand over the wish lists they have collected to Santa Claus. (Uwe Anspach/dpa via AP)
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A former Uvalde police officer was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he failed in his duties to confront the gunman at Robb Elementary during the critical first minutes of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Jurors deliberated for more than seven hours before finding Adrian Gonzalez, 52, not guilty in the first trial over the hesitant law enforcement response to the 2022 attack, which killed 19 children and two teachers.
Gonzales appeared to close his eyes and take a deep breath as he stood to hear the verdict in a Corpus Christi courtroom hundreds of miles from Uvalde, where Gonzales' attorneys argued that he could not receive a fair trial. After the verdict was read, he hugged one of his lawyers and appeared to be fighting back tears.
“Thank you for the jury for considering all the evidence,” Gonzales told reporters. Asked if he wanted to say anything to the families, he declined.
Moments after the verdict was read, several members of families of the victims sat in silence, some crying or wiping away tears.
“Faith is fractured, but you never lose faith," said Jesse Rizo, whose 9-year-old niece Jackie Cazares was killed. He said he was frustrated by the verdict and hopes the state will press ahead with the trial of former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, the only other officer who has been charged over the police response.
“Those children in the cemetery can’t speak for themselves,” Rizo said.
Arredondo’s trial has not yet been set.
Jurors declined to speak to reporters while leaving the courthouse.
The nearly three-week trial was a rare case in the U.S. of an officer facing criminal charges on accusations of failing to stop a crime and protect lives. Gonzales had faced the possibility of up to two years in prison if convicted.
The proceedings included emotional testimony from teachers who were shot and survived. Prosecutors argued that Gonzales abandoned his training and did nothing to stop or interrupt the teenage gunman before he entered the school.
“We’re expected to act differently when talking about a child that can’t defend themselves,” special prosecutor Bill Turner said during closing arguments Wednesday. “If you have a duty to act, you can’t stand by while a child is in imminent danger.”
At least 370 law enforcement officers rushed to the school, where 77 minutes passed before a tactical team finally entered the classroom to confront and kill the gunman. Gonzales was one of just two officers indicted, angering some victim’s relatives who said they wanted more to be held accountable.
Gonzales was charged with 29 counts of child abandonment and endangerment — each count representing the 19 students who were killed and 10 others who were injured.
During the trial jurors heard a medical examiner describe the fatal wounds to the children, some of whom were shot more than a dozen times. Several parents told of sending their children to school for an awards ceremony and the panic that ensued as the attack unfolded.
Gonzales’ lawyers said he arrived upon a chaotic scene of rifle shots echoing on school grounds and never saw the gunman before the attacker went inside the school. They also insisted that three other officers who arrived seconds later had a better chance to stop the gunman.
Gonzales’ attorney, Jason Goss, told jurors before they began deliberating that his client was not responsible for the attack.
“The monster that hurt those kids is dead,” Goss said. “It is one of the worst things that ever happened.”
A conviction would tell police they have to be “perfect” when responding to a crisis and could make them even more hesitant in the future, Goss said.
Some victims’ families made the long drive to watch Gonzales' trial. Early on the sister of one of the teachers killed was removed from the courtroom after an angry outburst following one officer’s testimony.
Gonzales’ trial was tightly focused on his actions in the early moments of the attack, but prosecutors also presented the graphic and emotional testimony as the result of police failures.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
Prosecutors faced a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the 2018 school massacre in Parkland, Florida. A sheriff’s deputy was acquitted after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.
Jesse Rizo and his wife Juanita Cazares-Rizo listen to the prosecution and defense deliver their closing statements to the jury on the 11th day of the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Corpus Christi, Texas. T (Sam Owens /The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Special prosecutor Bill Turner delivers a closing statement to the jury on the 11th day of the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Sam Owens /The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Nico LaHood mimics a police officer responding to a threat inside a classroom while delivering a closing statement to the jury on the 11th day of the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Sam Owens /The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales listens to closing statements on the 11th day of his trial at the Nueces County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Sam Owens /The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Police officers escort Velma Lisa Duran of the courtroom as she yells at witness Joe Vasquez, a Zavala County Sheriff's Office deputy, during a trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. Duran's sister Irma Garcia was one of two teachers who were killed in the Robb Elementary mass shooting. (Sam Owens/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Javier Cazares listens to testimony during the 10th day of the trial of former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. Cazares is the father of Robb Elementary shooting victim Jackie Cazares, one of the 19 children killed by an 18-year-old gunman. (Sam Owens/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Nico LaHood cross-examines the prosecution's witness Nick Hill, a Texas Ranger lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety, during the 10th day of the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Sam Owens/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, left, talks to his defense attorney Nico LaHood during a break on the 10th day of his trial at Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Sam Owens/The San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)
