Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College didn't lock when it was closed by a trainer shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two academics, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They've now decided that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but then eliminated the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. But, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element through further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news convention when authorities first mentioned 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 mentioned the trainer initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out while on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty worker, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the free. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a car to a classroom, the attorney 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 advised the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two academics who were killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his workplace from The Related Press.

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

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if kids had been no longer at risk, while 19 law enforcement officials waited within the faculty hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

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