Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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 lecturers, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

State police initially mentioned 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 teacher, who has not been recognized, 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 Division of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We all know that much and now investigators are trying into why it did not lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element by additional video footage reviewed since last 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 said the trainer initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary College employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the unfastened. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a car to a classroom, the legal professional mentioned.

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children 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 said.

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if youngsters were not in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “fallacious choice,” 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 take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.