Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College did not lock when it was closed by a trainer shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two lecturers, leaving investigators looking out to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They have now determined that the instructor, who has not been recognized, 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 Division of Public Safety. However, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of further video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information convention when authorities first stated that the door had been left propped open. Authorities didn't state at that time 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 came back out whereas on her telephone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed 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 unfastened. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a automotive to a classroom, the legal professional mentioned.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two teachers who were killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the varsity taking pictures scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo treated the active scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids have been no longer in danger, while 19 cops waited within the faculty hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments continue to sit down for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.