Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially mentioned a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now determined that the instructor, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but 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 Division of Public Safety. But, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via further video footage reviewed since final 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 said the instructor initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out while on her telephone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary advised the San Antonio Specific-News 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 car 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 shooting,” Flanary informed the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school taking pictures scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has said Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage situation and as if children had been now not in danger, while 19 cops waited within the school hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers within the Uvalde city and schools police departments proceed to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.