UVALDE, Texas – A member of the Texas Rangers has been suspended and is being investigated for his failure to take action during the Uvalde school shooting, sources told CNN.
According to the CNN report, Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell is among seven officers with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) that is under investigation by the law enforcement agency’s inspector general.
Kindell told investigators he arrived at the school at about noon on May 24 and focused on supplying updates to his superiors during the massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead at Robb Elementary. 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, sources said.
CNN has reached out to Kindell and DPS officials for comment but haven’t heard back.
Late last week, Sgt. Juan Maldonado, one of the first DPS troopers to arrive at the scene of shooting was fired by DPS. Maldonado is the first among the seven DPS officers under investigation disciplined, and the inspector general probe into him was the first one completed, an official told ABC News.
DPS Officer Crimson Elizondo, who was the first DPS member to enter the hallway at the school after the shooter gained entry, is also under investigation.
Elizondo was hired, then fired, by Uvalde CISD, after she resigned from DPS. However, by Elizondo resigning from DPS to work for Uvalde schools, she is no longer subject to any internal discipline or penalties. Her conduct — if found to be in violation of law or policy — would be included in the final report from the IG.