Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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 college students and two teachers, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially stated 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 eliminated the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. But, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference 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 instructor 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 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 mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Categorical-News that the Robb Elementary School 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 hold food from a automobile to a classroom, the lawyer mentioned.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the college shooting scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if children were no longer at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited within the school hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.