Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty 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 searching to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now determined 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. But, Considine stated, 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 wanting into why it didn't lock,” Considine said.

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news convention 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 instructor 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 came back out while on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

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

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is always supposed to be locked,” Flanary stated.

Flanary did not immediately return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are additionally still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if youngsters have been no longer in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the school hallway outside the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw referred to as that the “wrong resolution,” 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 provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.