Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty did not lock when it was closed by a trainer 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 said Tuesday.

State police initially stated a trainer had propped the door open shortly before 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 eliminated 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. However, Considine said, 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 wanting into why it did not lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element via additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news convention when authorities first said 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 said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out whereas on her cellphone, 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,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney 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 hold food from a automotive to a classroom, the attorney said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two academics who were killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is at all times supposed to be locked,” Flanary said.

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

Investigators are additionally nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity capturing scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if kids were no longer at risk, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the college hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw referred to as that the “improper decision,” saying the focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.