Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially stated a trainer had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They've now decided that the trainer, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, 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 wanting into why it didn't lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element via additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities didn't state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the trainer initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out while 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 again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Categorical-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty worker, 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 carry meals from a automobile to a classroom, the attorney stated.

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two lecturers who had been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the school capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children have been not in danger, while 19 police officers waited in the college hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

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