Pooja Salhotra, The Texas Tribune
Aug. 5, 2024

“DPS reinstates Texas Ranger fired for Uvalde shooting response” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.

Editor’s note: This story contains explicit language.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has reinstated a Texas Ranger who the agency previously attempted to fire for failing to respond appropriately to the deadly Robb Elementary School shooting.

DPS Director Steve McCraw said in a Friday letter to Christopher Ryan Kindell that Kindell could return to his former position now that the Texas Rangers had completed their criminal investigation of the shooting. No criminal charges were filed against any DPS officers. McCraw said that Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell, who convened a grand jury in January to investigate law enforcement’s delayed response to the May 2022 shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, requested the reinstatement.

Mitchell confirmed that she made that request, noting that rangers in Real County, Val Verde County and Maverick County had been covering Kindell’s territory while he was suspended.

“Ranger Kindell has worked diligently to serve the citizens of Uvalde County for approximately seven years and has been the lead investigator on several complicated cases, from child sexual abuse to murder cases,” Mitchell said in an email. “It was time that Ranger Kindell got back to work serving Uvalde County.”

Mitchell did not share what evidence about Kindell the grand jury considered, stating it is illegal to disclose any information about grand jury proceedings. The Austin American-Statesman first reported Kindell’s reinstatement.

The massacre was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Law enforcement officers waited 77 minutes to confront the lone gunman, even though 376 law enforcement officers responded to the scene. The shooter was ultimately killed by a Border Patrol tactical unit.

Kindell was notified in January 2023 that he would be fired. In his termination letter, McCraw said Kindell’s actions “did not conform to department standards” and that he should have recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, not a barricaded subject situation. Kindell was given five days to appeal the decision.

Since January, Kindell has received his annual salary of close to $100,000, while on suspension.

On Friday, McCraw wrote that he decided to change his initial decision “based upon a review of the completed Texas Ranger criminal investigation” of the shooting, “an internal investigation on DPS officers who responded to the attack, and subsequent to the review of the Uvalde Grand Jury.”

The grand jury in June indicted two former Uvalde school police officers on charges of child endangerment. Those two indictments, against former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales, represent the only criminal charges filed after the school shooting. No DPS officers were indicted.

Because grand jury investigations in Texas are secret, it is not entirely clear what evidence the jury considered, though The Texas Tribune confirmed that McCraw was among those who appeared as witnesses.

McCraw has previously blamed local officers for law enforcement’s botched response, which was the subject of a January U.S. Department of Justice report that documented numerous failures in leadership and coordination. A Texas House special committee report also criticized state and federal law enforcement officers’ inaction.

A total of 91 DPS officers responded to the incident, alongside local police, U.S. Border Patrol members and Uvalde school police.

Kindell’s role in law enforcement’s response is not entirely clear. CNN reported that Kindell was inside the school’s hallways while shots were fired in a classroom and that Kindell then attempted to negotiate with the gunman. A New York Times investigation found that Kindell was seen on surveillance footage delivering a set of keys to other officers at 12:36 p.m., 14 minutes before the Border Patrol team entered the classroom and killed the gunman.

Kindell joined DPS in 2006 and worked in the criminal division before becoming a ranger in 2016. He had been assigned several high-profile investigations. He could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Families of the victims of the shooting have expressed outrage over what they say is a lack of accountability and transparency following the shooting.

Friday’s letter was met with a similar sense of frustration. “Not only is it sick and disgusting that he is reinstated…..Our fucking D.A. REQUESTED IT! How much lower will any of these people go to spit on our faces!?!?” Brett Cross, whose son was among those killed, said on social media.

Kindell was one of two DPS officers who were notified they’d be fired following the school shooting. The other, Sgt. Juan Maldonado, decided to retire. A third trooper who was under investigation retired before the investigation was complete. Four remaining troopers who were internally investigated were eventually cleared.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/05/chris-kindell-uvalde-fired-reinstated-texas-ranger/.