Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially mentioned a trainer had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They have now decided that the trainer, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, however 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 Security. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element through additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference 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 teacher initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here back out whereas on her phone, 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 stated.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary College worker, 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 car to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his office 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 school shooting scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids were no longer in danger, while 19 law enforcement officials waited in the faculty hallway outdoors 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.

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments continue to sit for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.