Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially said a instructor had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They've now decided that the trainer, who has not been recognized, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail through further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information conference when authorities first mentioned 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 said the teacher initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came again out whereas on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Categorical-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, 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 automotive to a classroom, the attorney mentioned.

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

Funerals are planned for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two teachers who had been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

Investigators are also still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity capturing scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage situation and as if youngsters were not in danger, whereas 19 cops waited within the school hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.