Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty 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 teachers, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially said a teacher had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They've now determined that the trainer, 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 Division of Public Safety. But, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

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

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

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Categorical-News 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 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 while telling 911 that he was shooting,” Flanary instructed the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children 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 imagined to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are additionally still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity capturing scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if kids were no longer in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway outside the classroom where the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “fallacious determination,” saying the main target of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments continue to sit down for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.