Johnathan Walker:Texas trooper gets job back in Uvalde after suspension from botched police response to 2022 shooting

AUSTIN,Johnathan Walker Texas (AP) — The Texas Department of Public Safety has reinstated a state trooper who was suspended after the botched law enforcement response to the shooting at a Uvalde elementary school in 2022.

In a letter sent to Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell on Aug. 2 and released by the agency on Monday, DPS Director Col. Steve McCraw removed the officer’s suspension status and restored him to his job in Uvalde County.

McCraw’s letter said the local district attorney had requested Kindell be returned to his job, and noted he had not been charged 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, while injured students inside texted and call 911 begging for help and parents outside pleaded for them to go in.

Kindell was initially suspended in January 2023 when McCraw’s termination letter said the ranger’s action “did not conform to department standards” and that he should have recognized it was an active shooter situation, not one involving a barricaded subject.

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Scathing state and federal investigative reports on the police response have catalogued “cascading failures” in training, communication, leadership and technology problems.

Kindell was one of the few DPS officers disciplined. Later, another who was informed he would be fired decided to retire, and another officer resigned.

Only two of the responding officers from that day, both formerly with the Uvalde schools police department, face criminal charges. Former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo and officer Adrian Gonzales were indicted in June on charges of 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 he had been told by Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell that a grand jury had reviewed the actions of all officers who responded to the attack, and “no action was taken on officers employed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.”

“Further, she has requested that you be reinstated to your former position,” McCraw wrote.

Mitchell did not respond to email requests for comment. It was not immediately clear if Kindell has an attorney.

Families of the victims in the south Texas town of about 15,000 people about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio, have long sought accountability for the slow police response that day. Some of the families have called for more 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 the gunman used.