Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College 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 to determine why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They have now determined 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news 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 trainer initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came again out while on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary College employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the free. She had initially propped it open to hold meals from a automotive to a classroom, the legal professional said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

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

Investigators are also nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased 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 pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if children were now not at risk, while 19 law enforcement officials waited in the school hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.