Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially said a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They've now determined that the teacher, who has not been recognized, propped the door open with a rock, but then removed 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 Safety. But, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by means of further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine mentioned the instructor initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came again out while on her cellphone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Categorical-Information that the Robb Elementary School 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 carry meals from a car to a classroom, the legal professional mentioned.

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

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

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked,” Flanary stated.

Flanary did not instantly return phone messages left at his workplace from The Related Press.

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

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children were now not in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the faculty hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw called that the “flawed decision,” saying the main target of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers within the Uvalde city 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 stated.