React Native Starter template installs using Android "run", but not using react-native run-android

[spinoza1791]

For the React Native Starter repo, I configured Android Studio Settings and Project Structure with dependencies used in the default from the template repo:
Emulator Pixel 4 API 28, Gradle 5.5/Gradle Tools 3.4.2/JDK 12/Target&Compile sdk 28, build ver 28.0.3

1. Run with Android Studio and Metro running in project folder -> Success -> React Native Starter home page
2. react-native run-android -> Failure ->
   FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• What went wrong:
  Could not initialize class org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerHelper
  ... Error: Command failed: gradlew.bat app:installDebug -PreactNativeDevServerPort=8081

Thank you for any suggestions! I used the original settings because newer versions of API, JDK and Gradle caused the same issue.