Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two academics, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police stated Tuesday.

State police initially said a instructor 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, but then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. However, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by additional video footage reviewed since last 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 trainer initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary advised the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary College 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 meals from a automobile to a classroom, the legal professional stated.

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on May 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is all the time supposed to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are also nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school shooting scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage scenario and as if children 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 “unsuitable decision,” saying the main target of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

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