Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

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

They've now decided that the trainer, who has not been recognized, propped the door open with a rock, however then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by way of additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention when authorities first said 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 stated 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 somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 automotive to a classroom, the attorney stated.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is always imagined to be locked,” Flanary said.

Flanary didn't instantly return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also nonetheless attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the varsity shooting scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if children were no longer at risk, while 19 cops waited in the college hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine mentioned.