Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two lecturers, leaving investigators looking out to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They have now decided that the instructor, who has not been recognized, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news 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 stated the teacher initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary College worker, 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 capturing,” Flanary told the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two teachers who were killed in that classroom on Could 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is all the time 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 Independent Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the college taking pictures scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage scenario and as if kids were not at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited in the college hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.