Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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

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

They have now determined that the teacher, 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

“We did confirm 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 stated.

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first stated that the door had been left propped open. Authorities didn't state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine stated 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 got here back out while on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information that the Robb Elementary School 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 food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

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

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids had been no longer in danger, whereas 19 cops waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “wrong resolution,” saying the main focus 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 supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.