Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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

State police initially said a teacher had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now determined that the trainer, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. However, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

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

“She came back out whereas on her telephone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-Information that the Robb Elementary College worker, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the unfastened. She had initially propped it open to carry meals from a automobile to a classroom, the attorney stated.

“She kicked the rock away when she went again in. She remembers pulling the door closed whereas telling 911 that he was capturing,” Flanary instructed the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who had been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is all the time imagined to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his workplace from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school shooting scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo treated the active scene as a hostage scenario and as if children had been now not in danger, whereas 19 cops waited in the college hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.