Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

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

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

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

Investigators confirmed the element by way of extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference 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 mentioned 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 got here back out while on her telephone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary advised the San Antonio Categorical-News 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 lawyer mentioned.

“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 deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is at all times purported to be locked,” Flanary said.

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

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

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if youngsters were no longer at risk, while 19 cops waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.