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 students and two teachers, leaving investigators searching to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now determined that the trainer, who has not been identified, 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. However, Considine mentioned, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via further video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention when authorities first stated 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 teacher initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her phone and call 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 saw him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary School 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 attorney mentioned.

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

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

Flanary did not instantly return telephone messages left at his office from The Related Press.

Investigators are also still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the college capturing scene whereas it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the active scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if children have been now not at risk, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the college hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.