Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty did not lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two academics, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

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

They have now determined that the trainer, who has not been identified, 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 Department of Public Safety. But, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element via extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news convention when authorities first mentioned 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 stated the trainer initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, 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 automobile to a classroom, the attorney stated.

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

Flanary did not instantly return telephone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children have been now not in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.