Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They have now decided that the teacher, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. However, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news convention 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 said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 carry food from a automobile 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 advised the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

Flanary didn't instantly return telephone messages left at his workplace from The Related Press.

Investigators are additionally still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school shooting scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if kids have been no longer at risk, whereas 19 cops waited within the faculty hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.