Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty did not lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two lecturers, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now decided that the trainer, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but 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. But, Considine mentioned, 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 trying into why it didn't lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the detail via additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first mentioned 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 back inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out whereas on her cellphone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed 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 informed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 carry food from a automobile to a classroom, the legal professional mentioned.

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

Funerals are planned for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two teachers who were killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is at all times supposed to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

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

Investigators are additionally still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college capturing scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids had been now not in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the school hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw called that the “mistaken determination,” saying the main focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments proceed to sit for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.