Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two academics, leaving investigators looking out to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They have now decided that the instructor, who has not been recognized, propped the door open with a rock, but 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 Security. But, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference when authorities first mentioned 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 mentioned the instructor initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out whereas on her phone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-Information 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 automobile to a classroom, the attorney stated.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are additionally still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity shooting scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if kids were no longer in danger, while 19 cops waited within the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.