This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet.
Director Steve McCraw reinstated a Texas ranger he’d fired over the response to the Robb Elementary shooting. The ranger’s appeal could have brought scrutiny on his agency.
DPS didn’t respond to questions for this story. A department spokesperson shared with reporters a letter McCraw sent Kindell, in which the director cites. “We’re going to take responsibility, but we’re not responsible. We’re going to punish a couple people, but we’re not going to punish them. We’re not going to release the information to let others reach that conclusion.”
But one of Ayala’s own investigators seemed to contradict that a month later by filing a complaint against Kindell accusing the Ranger of incompetence, according to records obtained by the. At the time, Mitchell, who didn’t respond to questions for this story, said she was concerned DPS hadn’t followed its own policies when it suspended Kindell.
But McCraw had other reasons to be wary of a hearing before the Public Safety Commission. The Rangers’ top brass ultimately answers to McCraw, but records obtained by theshow that last year the division’s leaders objected to Kindell’s firing. In a public hearing before the commissioners who oversee him—and who just last year—McCraw was likely to have his decision-making called into question by law enforcement officers who are revered by many state leaders like lawmen in a western novel.
In June, the Uvalde grand jury handed up felony child endangerment charges against only two officers: Arredondo and former UCISD Officer Adrian Gonzales. This gave McCraw an out. Despite the DPS chief’s statement nearly two years ago that his employees would be held to departmental standards regardless of whether their conduct constituted a criminal violation, McCraw ultimately cited the lack of criminal charges for why he reversed his decision to fire Kindell.
Steve Mccraw Uvalde Robb Elementary School School Shootings
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