Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College didn't lock when it was closed by a trainer 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 mentioned a teacher had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They've now determined 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door didn't 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 said.

Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention when authorities first said 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 mentioned the teacher initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came again out while on her cellphone, 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 stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary advised the San Antonio Specific-News 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 hold food from a automotive to a classroom, the attorney said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two lecturers who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the school taking pictures scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if kids have been not in danger, while 19 police officers waited within the faculty hallway exterior 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 city and schools police departments continue to sit down for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.