Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School 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 lecturers, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially said a trainer had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They've now decided that the trainer, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information convention when authorities first stated 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 mentioned the teacher initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out whereas on her phone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary advised the San Antonio Categorical-News that the Robb Elementary College worker, 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 food from a car 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 shooting,” Flanary told the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who had been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is at all times purported to be locked,” Flanary stated.

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity taking pictures scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head 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, while 19 law enforcement officials waited in the faculty hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw referred to as that the “unsuitable choice,” saying the main target of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

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