Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now decided 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news convention when authorities first mentioned 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 teacher initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her phone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out whereas on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary College 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 automotive to a classroom, the lawyer stated.

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

Funerals are planned for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two teachers who had been killed in that classroom on May 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is at all times alleged to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

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

Investigators are additionally nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school taking pictures scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if youngsters had been now not at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.