Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't 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 academics, leaving investigators looking to determine why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

State police initially said a instructor had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now determined that the instructor, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, 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 wanting into why it didn't lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the element through extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news convention when authorities first said 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 teacher 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 came back out while 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,” removing the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-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 meals from a automotive to a classroom, the attorney mentioned.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two teachers who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

Investigators are also still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school shooting scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, has said Arredondo treated the active scene as a hostage situation and as if kids had been now not in danger, while 19 cops waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.