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 lecturers, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now determined that the instructor, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. However, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

“We did confirm she closed the door. The door did not lock. We all know that much and now investigators are trying into why it didn't lock,” Considine stated.

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information conference when authorities first said 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 teacher initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out whereas on her phone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him leap 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 told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 automotive to a classroom, the attorney stated.

“She kicked the rock away when she went again in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was taking pictures,” Flanary told the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally nonetheless attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the college taking pictures scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids had been now not in danger, while 19 police officers waited in the school hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.