Texas DPS moves to fire Texas Ranger under investigation for Uvalde shooting response

By Shimon Prokupecz, CNN

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is moving to terminate a member of the elite Texas Rangers unit who had been suspended over the actions he failed to take during the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, according to a source familiar with the process.

The source told CNN that Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell was notified Friday of DPS’s intention to terminate him and that the process gives Kindell several days to respond.

DPS officials declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Kindell for comment but has not yet received a response.

Kindell would be the second member of DPS to be fired over the botched response at Robb Elementary. As a Texas Ranger, Kindell now becomes the highest-ranking officer who responded to the scene to face termination.

The Texas Rangers are a special group within the DPS who face a higher standard for recruitment and are expected “to handle any given situation without definite instructions from his commanding officer or higher authority,” as stated on the agency’s website.

Sources have told CNN that Kindell arrived at the school at about noon on May 24 and focused on supplying updates to his bosses. He told investigators he had no discussions about options to breach the classroom, as a person in his position would have been expected to do, the sources said.

“My actions at the scene and during the event were minimal,” Kindell told investigators days after 19 children and two teachers were killed in the massacre, the sources familiar with the inquiry said.

Kindell is one of seven officers in the DPS who were referred for investigation by the body’s inspector general. Another of the seven, Sgt. Juan Maldonado, was served termination papers in October.

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CNN’s Matthew J. Friedman contributed to this report.