Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially mentioned a instructor had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They've now decided that the teacher, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security. But, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news convention when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the teacher initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary School worker, 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 hold meals from a automobile to a classroom, the attorney mentioned.

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

Funerals are planned for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two lecturers who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

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

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the college taking pictures scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if youngsters were no longer in danger, whereas 19 police officers waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.