Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School didn't lock when it was closed by a trainer shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two lecturers, leaving investigators searching to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They have now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, 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 Division of Public Safety. However, Considine mentioned, the door did not 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 didn't lock,” Considine said.

Investigators confirmed the detail via additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first stated 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 said the instructor initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came again out while on her telephone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Categorical-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty employee, 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 automotive to a classroom, the lawyer mentioned.

“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 instructed the newspaper.

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

“She thought the door would lock because that door is all the time alleged to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

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

Investigators are also still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College 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 top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage situation and as if youngsters have been not in danger, while 19 cops waited within the school hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “unsuitable determination,” saying the main focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.