Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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 out to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They have now decided that the instructor, who has not been identified, 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by means of further video footage reviewed since last 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 mentioned the trainer initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out while on her cellphone, 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 mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary School worker, 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 meals from a automotive to a classroom, the attorney stated.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the college capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if kids were not in danger, whereas 19 cops waited within the college hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

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