Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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 college students and two academics, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They've now decided that the trainer, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

“We did confirm she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are trying into why it did not lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element by means of extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news conference when authorities first stated that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.

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

“She got here again out while on her telephone, she heard somebody 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 said.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary School employee, 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 carry meals from a car to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is always presupposed to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

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

Investigators are additionally nonetheless attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if children had been not in danger, while 19 police officers waited in the school hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw referred to as that the “mistaken resolution,” saying the main target of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers in the Uvalde city and faculties police departments proceed to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.