Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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

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

They have now decided 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. But, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention 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 mentioned the instructor initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out while on her telephone, 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 stated.

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 free. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a automobile 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 told the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two lecturers who had been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is at all times imagined to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are also nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college capturing scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if children were no longer in danger, while 19 cops waited in the faculty hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.