Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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

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

They've now determined that the teacher, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by way of further 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 mentioned the trainer initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her cellphone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary advised 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 loose. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a automobile to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two teachers who had been killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children had been no longer at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited within the faculty hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.