Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty did not lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two lecturers, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

State police initially mentioned a trainer had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They've now determined that the trainer, who has not been recognized, propped the door open with a rock, but then eliminated the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. But, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it didn't lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the detail by way of extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first stated that the door had been left propped open. Authorities didn't state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine mentioned the trainer initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out while on her cellphone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary College worker, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the free. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a car to a classroom, the legal professional stated.

“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed whereas telling 911 that he was taking pictures,” Flanary advised the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who had been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always imagined to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

Flanary did not instantly return phone messages left at his workplace from The Associated Press.

Investigators are additionally nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school capturing scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage scenario and as if kids were not in danger, whereas 19 police officers waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “mistaken determination,” saying the main focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments proceed to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.