Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College did not lock when it was closed by a teacher 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 mentioned Tuesday.

State police initially mentioned a instructor had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They have now decided that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but 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 Division of Public Security. But, Considine mentioned, 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 did not lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element by way of extra video footage reviewed since final 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 teacher 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 phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Specific-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 carry meals from a automobile 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 capturing,” Flanary instructed the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two lecturers who had been killed in that classroom on May 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always imagined to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are also nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the varsity shooting 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 have been now not at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited in the faculty hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments continue to sit for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.