Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially stated a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They have now decided 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. However, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by way of extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference when authorities first stated 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 trainer initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her cellphone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out whereas on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Categorical-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 car to a classroom, the legal professional said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two teachers who were killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college taking pictures scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if children had been now not at risk, whereas 19 cops waited within the school hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.