Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

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

They have now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but 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 did not 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 mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element by means of further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the trainer initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her cellphone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out whereas on her telephone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary advised 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 loose. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a automotive to a classroom, the lawyer mentioned.

“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 planned for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who have been killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

Flanary did not immediately return telephone messages left at his workplace from The Related Press.

Investigators are additionally nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school shooting scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, has mentioned Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if kids were no longer at risk, whereas 19 cops waited in the faculty hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.