Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially mentioned a teacher had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the school 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 removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that a lot and now investigators are looking into why it didn't lock,” Considine said.

Investigators confirmed the element through extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news 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 instructor initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-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 carry food from a car to a classroom, the legal professional 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 informed the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

Flanary did not immediately return telephone messages left at his workplace from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the varsity capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage scenario and as if children have been now not at risk, while 19 police officers waited within the college hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw referred to as that the “wrong determination,” saying the focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers in the Uvalde city and colleges police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.