Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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

State police initially stated a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on Might 24.

They've now decided that the instructor, who has not been recognized, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. However, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by way of additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news conference when authorities first stated 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 said the trainer initially propped the door open but 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 someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce 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 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 unfastened. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a car to a classroom, the legal professional stated.

“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 planned for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who were killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

Flanary did not instantly return telephone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are additionally still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school capturing scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has said Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage scenario and as if children have been no longer in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the college hallway outside the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine stated.