Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

State police initially mentioned a teacher had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the college in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now decided that the teacher, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference when authorities first mentioned that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at the moment what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the trainer initially propped the door open however ran again inside to get her telephone and name 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back 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 mentioned.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary informed 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 food from a automotive 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 advised the newspaper.

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock as a result of that door is all the time alleged to be locked,” Flanary said.

Flanary didn't immediately return telephone messages left at his workplace from The Related Press.

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

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, has mentioned Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage scenario and as if youngsters have been now not in danger, while 19 cops waited in the school hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to sit down for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine stated.