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A mother who was struck by a teen driver near a Gilroy elementary school last week has died, NBC Bay Area has learned. Her husband was also killed in the collision. The parents were hit while crossing a street near Las Animas Elementary School at about 8 a.m. last Friday. The father died at the scene. The mother died Monday night, family members said. “It’s just really heavy on all of us here in the community,” Jeanette Torres of Gilroy said. Family members of the victims have launched an online petition calling for flashing crosswalk lights in the area. “People drive very fast,” Torres said. “This is a neighborhood, it’s a school zone.” Torres said she is one of hundreds of people who have already signed the petition. It’s also on city leaders’ radar, though they haven’t committed to any specific changes at this time. “At the time that we have the information to understand what happened out here, we will start making decisions in this community to do what’s best and what’s safe for the streets and the kids of this community,” Gilroy Mayor Greg Bozzo said.

The Bay Area has experienced a number of shootings where the suspected shooter were all young people. In November, gunfire rang out at Oakland’s Skyline High School and San Jose’s Westfield Mall and Burton High in San Francisco in December. NBC Bay Area sat down with a group of young people in San Francisco, both survivors and perpetrators to ask them what was driving this gun violence amongst youth, the impact of social media when it comes to guns and what can be done. High school teenagers, Ziggy Brown, Xavier Ballard, Terronnie Fields and Keenan Erwin, have attended programs at San Francisco’s United Playaz, a violence and prevention youth development program. The 18-year-old Erwin was shot in December at Burton High in the city’s Portola neighborhood. He says there was a dispute with another student and that student shot him. Keenan’s femur was shattered. “It was just crazy, hearing it happen to people and like not even thinking it could happen to you. What hurts more than that bullet was hearing your mama cry thinking that was her last time. Hearing you, seeing you breathe on this earth and hearing her cry,” he said. NBC Bay Area asked them about the problem of gun violence amongst youth. “No matter where you are, you could really just run into the wrong person that day,” Brown said. “It could be anybody any age because it’s such a problem, like we have kids running around thinking that guns are cool to have,” Ballard said. Brown and Ballard thought it was cool. In December 2024, the two ended up in juvenile hall for theft, robbing other people with a BB gun at Serramonte Mall. Ballard spent a week in a half in juvie. Ziggy three weeks. “It’s such a bad mistake and it was so like dumb,” Ballard said. Brown talked about a question his lawyer asked him. “He asked me, ‘Why did you do that? He’s like, he spoke real to me. He’s like, Why did you do that dumb** s***? You’re speaking to me with intelligence. Why did you do that?’ I told him I didn’t love myself. I didn’t care about myself enough,” he said. In 2021, gun violence replaced car crashes as the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. and has remained the leading killer, disporportionately affecting communities of color. Social media is also having an impact on them. “I feel like the social media is like it’s the humiliation part,” Ballard said. “It makes it to where people want to prove a point. Cause like for example, if somebody were to get like beat up or something and they seen it on the internet, then it’s like, okay, now I have to like get back.” There is no data directly linking social media to crime, but research suggests social media is an accelerant. Erin Grinshteyn, an associate dean and professor at the University of San Francisco, studies gun violence as a public health issue. “Social media has the capacity to disseminate gun violence information far more broadly than if you’re just exposed within your specific community,” Grinshteyn said. “What we’re seeing is that people who are exposed to gun violence in their community have negative mental health consequences. I think often times people think that a gun will make them safer, and all the research shows that having access to a firearm puts you in far more danger.”

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 Gonzales, 52, not guilty in the first trial over the hesitant law enforcement response to the 2022 attack, in which a teenage gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers. Had he been convicted, he faced up two years in prison on more than two dozen charges of child abandonment and endangerment. Gonzales appeared to fight back tears and hugged his lawyers after the verdict was read in a courtroom in Corpus Christi, hundreds of miles from Uvalde, where his legal team said a fair trial would not have been possible. “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. Several family members of the victims sat in silence in the courtroom, 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. Jurors declined to speak to reporters while leaving. Arredondo’s trial has not yet been set. Paul Looney, his attorney, told The Associated Press that he believes the verdict will result in prosecutors dropping the case against his client. “These people have been vilified, and it’s horrible what’s been done to them. These guys didn’t do anything wrong,” Looney said. A rare trial ends in acquittal The nearly three-week trial was an unusual case in the U.S. of an officer facing criminal charges on accusations of failing to stop a crime and protect lives. 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. Jurors talked about ‘gaps’ in case, lawyer says 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. “He was the lowest man on the totem pole. They thought he was easy pickings,” Nico LaHood, one of Gonzales’ attorneys, said of prosecutors after the acquittal. Uvalde School Shooting Aug 12, 2025 ‘My kids are in there, bro … please.' Uvalde releases video, records of slow police response Uvalde School Shooting Jun 27, 2024 Former Uvalde school district police chief charged with child endangerment after…

Polynésie La 1ère a réaffirmé son engagement en faveur de la jeunesse et de la création locale à l’occasion du pitching final du Campus Scénario, organisé le mardi 20 janvier à l’Université de la Polynésie française (UPF). Cet événement a marqué l’aboutissement de plusieurs mois de formation consacrés à l’écriture scénaristique, destinés à de jeunes talents polynésiens désireux de s’inscrire dans le paysage audiovisuel. Lancé en septembre 2025, le Campus Scénario est le fruit d’un partenariat entre Polynésie La 1ère, France Télévisions, la Cité européenne des scénaristes et l’UPF. Le programme a permis à des étudiants de bénéficier d’un accompagnement structuré et professionnalisant, les amenant à concevoir et défendre des projets de fiction originaux devant un jury composé de professionnels reconnus du secteur. Réunis pour écouter les propositions des six groupes d’étudiants, de nombreux acteurs institutionnels et professionnels étaient présents pour soutenir cette nouvelle génération de créateurs. Parmi eux figuraient Jean-Paul Pastorel, président de l’Université de la Polynésie française, Alex Bellerose, directeur éditorial de Polynésie La 1ère, Hélène Saillon, directrice de la Fiction du Pôle Outre-mer de France Télévisions, Delphine Wautier, productrice à France.tv Studio, Christel Gonnard, déléguée générale adjointe de la Cité européenne des scénaristes, ainsi qu’Audrey Gilles, enseignante et responsable pédagogique, Marie Leyral, professeure de lettres à l’UPF, et Jérôme Le Mest, scénariste et formateur. Tous ont salué la qualité des projets présentés, la créativité des étudiants et leur capacité à porter des récits ancrés dans les réalités culturelles et sociales du territoire, tout en répondant aux exigences de l’écriture audiovisuelle contemporaine. Polynésie La 1ère aux côtés des jeunes talents En s’associant au Campus Scénario, Polynésie La 1ère s’inscrit pleinement dans une démarche de transmission des savoirs, d’ouverture vers les métiers de l’audiovisuel et de valorisation de la création locale. Cette initiative illustre la volonté de la chaîne d’accompagner l’émergence de nouvelles voix et de contribuer activement à la structuration d’un vivier de talents en Polynésie. Ce pitching final constitue une étape déterminante pour les étudiants, désormais encouragés à poursuivre le développement de leurs projets et à envisager leur intégration dans l’écosystème audiovisuel. Au-delà de l’exercice de présentation, le Campus Scénario ouvre des perspectives concrètes et renforce les passerelles entre formation universitaire et monde professionnel, confirmant le rôle central de l’UPF et de ses partenaires dans l’accompagnement des créateurs de demain.