Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially mentioned a teacher had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They've now determined that the instructor, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but 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 Department of Public Safety. But, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element via additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information convention when authorities first mentioned 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 teacher initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Specific-Information that the Robb Elementary School 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 hold meals from a automotive to a classroom, the legal professional stated.

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

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

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

Flanary didn't immediately return telephone messages left at his workplace from The Associated Press.

Investigators are additionally still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school capturing scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if kids had been no longer in danger, while 19 police officers waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde city and faculties police departments continue to sit for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.