Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty did not lock when it was closed by a trainer shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two academics, leaving investigators searching to determine why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

State police initially said a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They have now decided that the instructor, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, however 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 Department of Public Security. But, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by means of further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news convention 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 however ran back inside to get her cellphone and name 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 bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary advised the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary College 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 automobile to a classroom, the attorney said.

“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed whereas telling 911 that he was capturing,” 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 Might 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 instantly return phone messages left at his workplace from The Related Press.

Investigators are additionally nonetheless attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the college shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage scenario and as if children had been not at risk, while 19 cops waited within the college hallway outside the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “flawed choice,” saying the focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.