Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty did not lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two lecturers, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now determined that the instructor, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, however 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 stated, the door did not lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We all know that much and now investigators are wanting into why it didn't lock,” Considine stated.

Investigators confirmed the detail by extra video footage reviewed since last 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 stated the instructor 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 again out while on her telephone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary School worker, 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 hold food from a automobile to a classroom, the legal professional stated.

“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed whereas telling 911 that he was shooting,” Flanary advised 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 all the time speculated to be locked,” Flanary said.

Flanary didn't instantly return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

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

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, has mentioned Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children were no longer in danger, while 19 cops waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments continue to sit down for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.