Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially mentioned a teacher had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now decided that the trainer, who has not been recognized, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

“We did confirm 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 element through further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference when authorities first mentioned 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 stated the trainer initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her phone and call 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 noticed him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told 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 unfastened. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a automobile to a classroom, the attorney said.

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

Funerals are planned for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the college capturing scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage scenario and as if youngsters were not in danger, while 19 law enforcement officials waited in the school hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.