Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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

State police initially stated a trainer had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They have now determined that the teacher, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. However, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information 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 said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out whereas on her telephone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 automobile to a classroom, the attorney said.

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

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

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is at all times speculated to be locked,” Flanary stated.

Flanary did not instantly return telephone messages left at his office from The Related Press.

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college taking pictures scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, has mentioned Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids have been no longer at risk, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the faculty hallway outside the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.