Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially mentioned a trainer had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They've now decided that the trainer, 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 Division of Public Security. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

“We did confirm she closed the door. The door didn't lock. We all know that a lot and now investigators are wanting into why it didn't lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the detail by way of 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 that time 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 cellphone 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 leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty worker, 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 carry meals from a automotive to a classroom, the attorney mentioned.

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who had been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school shooting scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children were now not in danger, whereas 19 police officers waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde city and faculties police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.