Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary Faculty didn't lock when it was closed by a trainer shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 college students and two lecturers, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police stated Tuesday.

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

They've now decided that the instructor, who has not been identified, 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, mentioned Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference 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 instructor initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out while on her cellphone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him jump 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 instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the free. She had initially propped it open to hold meals from a automobile to a classroom, the legal professional mentioned.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who had been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the college shooting scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if children have been no longer at risk, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited within the faculty hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

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