Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School did not lock when it was closed by a instructor 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 mentioned Tuesday.

State police initially mentioned 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 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. But, Considine mentioned, 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 element by means of extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news convention when authorities first said 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 teacher initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her telephone and name 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 soar 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 instructed the San Antonio Categorical-News that the Robb Elementary College employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the loose. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer stated.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two academics who were killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always imagined to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are also still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school taking pictures scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if children were now not at risk, while 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to sit down for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.