AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Public Safety has reinstated a state trooper who was suspended after law enforcement’s botched response to the 2022 Uvalde elementary school shooting.
In a letter sent to Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell on Aug. 2 and released by the agency Monday, DPS Director Col. Steve McCraw removed the officer’s suspension status and reinstated him to his position in Uvalde County.
McCraw’s letter said the local prosecutor had requested that Kindell be reinstated and noted that he had not been indicted by a local grand jury that reviewed the police response.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the May 24, 2022, attack on Robb Elementary School, making it one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Nearly 400 officers waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter in the classroom, as wounded students inside texted and called 911 for help and parents outside pleaded with them to come in.
Kindell was initially suspended in January 2023 when McCraw’s termination letter said the guard’s actions “were not consistent with department standards” and that he should have recognized that it was an active shooter situation, not one involving a barricaded subject.
Scathing state and federal investigative reports into the police response have listed “cascading failures” in training, communications, leadership and technology.
Kindell was one of the few DPS officers who was disciplined. Later, another officer who was told he would be fired decided to retire, and another resigned.
Only two of the officers involved that day, both former Uvalde School Police Department officers, face criminal charges.
Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo and Officer Adrian Gonzales were charged in June with child endangerment and abandonment.
Both pleaded not guilty in July.
In his reinstatement letter, McCraw wrote that Kindell was initially suspended after the agency’s internal investigation.
But now, McCraw said Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell told him that a grand jury reviewed the actions of all officers who responded to the attack, and “no action was taken against officers employed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.”
“Furthermore, she requested that you be reinstated to your former position,” McCraw wrote.
Mitchell did not respond to emailed requests for comment. It was not immediately clear whether Kindell has an attorney.
Families of the victims in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio have long sought to determine who was responsible for the slow police response that day.
Some families have called for more police officers to be charged.
Several families of Uvalde victims have filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media and online gaming companies, and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle used by the shooter.
