Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

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

They've now decided that the instructor, who has not been recognized, 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 Security. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first mentioned that the door had been left propped open. Authorities didn't state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine stated the teacher initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out whereas on her telephone, she heard somebody 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 told the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary School 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 food from a automotive to a classroom, the lawyer mentioned.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are additionally still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school taking pictures scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage situation and as if children were no longer at risk, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the faculty hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.