Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty 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 looking out to find out why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially stated a teacher had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They have now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, however 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. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

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

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

Considine stated 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 came back out whereas on her phone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce 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 informed 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 loose. She had initially propped it open to hold meals from a automobile to a classroom, the attorney mentioned.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two teachers who had been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

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

Investigators are also still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the varsity shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if children had been not at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited within the faculty hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments continue to sit for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.