Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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 college students and two academics, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

State police initially mentioned a trainer had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They've now determined that the trainer, who has not been recognized, propped the door open with a rock, however 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. However, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail through extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information 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 teacher initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-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 carry food from a automobile to a classroom, the legal professional said.

“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 informed the newspaper.

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

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

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

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

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if children had been now not in danger, while 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments proceed to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.