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

AUSTIN, 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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