Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School didn't lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two lecturers, leaving investigators searching to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially said a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They've now decided that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but then eliminated 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 said, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by way of further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information convention when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities didn't state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine stated the instructor 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 got here again out whereas on her telephone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 hold meals from a automotive to a classroom, the legal professional said.

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

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

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity taking pictures scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, has said Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if kids had been now not at risk, while 19 police officers waited within the school hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde city and faculties police departments continue to sit for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.