Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College did not 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 academics, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

State police initially stated a teacher had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now determined that the teacher, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. But, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We all know that a lot and now investigators are wanting into why it did not lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element by way of additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information conference when authorities first mentioned 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 said 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 again out whereas on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty worker, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the unfastened. 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 again in. She remembers pulling the door closed whereas telling 911 that he was taking pictures,” Flanary informed the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

Flanary didn't instantly return phone messages left at his office from The Related Press.

Investigators are also nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the varsity shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, has mentioned Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if kids had been now not at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited within the school hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

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