Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School didn't lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They have now determined that the instructor, who has not been recognized, propped the door open with a rock, however 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 didn't lock. We all know that a lot and now investigators are trying into why it didn't lock,” Considine stated.

Investigators confirmed the detail by way of further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention when authorities first stated 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 instructor 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 got here back out while on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary College employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the unfastened. She had initially propped it open to hold meals from a car to a classroom, the lawyer mentioned.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are also nonetheless attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the varsity taking pictures scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if kids were now not at risk, while 19 police officers waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde city and colleges police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.