Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers, leaving investigators looking to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially stated a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than 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, however 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 Department of Public Security. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door didn't lock. We know that a lot and now investigators are looking 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 stated 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 said the teacher 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 again out whereas on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary instructed 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 unfastened. She had initially propped it open to hold meals from a car to a classroom, the legal professional 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 told the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters 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 speculated to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

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

Investigators are also nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the varsity shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if kids had been no longer at risk, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw called that the “mistaken determination,” saying the focus 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, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.