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 students and two teachers, 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 college in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They've now decided that the teacher, 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. But, Considine stated, the door did not 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 mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the detail via further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information convention when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the teacher 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 while on her cellphone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, 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 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 while telling 911 that he was capturing,” Flanary advised the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the subsequent 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 all the time purported to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college shooting scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if youngsters have been now not in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the college hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.