Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School 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 teachers, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now determined that the teacher, 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news 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 stated the teacher initially propped the door open but ran again inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She got here again out whereas on her cellphone, she heard someone 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 mentioned.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-Information that the Robb Elementary School employee, 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 carry meals from a car to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are planned for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two lecturers who were killed in that classroom on Could 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is all the time alleged to be locked,” Flanary stated.

Flanary didn't immediately return phone messages left at his workplace from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage scenario and as if children had been now not at risk, whereas 19 cops waited in the school hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “incorrect 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 proceed to sit for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.