Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School didn't lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two lecturers, leaving investigators looking to determine why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

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

They have now determined that the trainer, who has not been recognized, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via further 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 said the trainer initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her cellphone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary told the San Antonio Categorical-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the loose. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two teachers who had been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity capturing scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, has said Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if youngsters were now not at risk, whereas 19 cops waited in the school hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.