Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School did not lock when it was closed by a instructor shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers, leaving investigators searching to find out why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

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

They've now decided that the teacher, who has not been recognized, 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, mentioned 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 did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are trying into why it didn't lock,” Considine stated.

Investigators confirmed the detail by additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information conference when authorities first said 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 stated the teacher initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her cellphone 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 jump 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 Express-News 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 attorney stated.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two teachers who had been killed in that classroom on Could 24.

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

Flanary did not immediately return phone messages left at his office from The Related Press.

Investigators are additionally nonetheless trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college taking pictures scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if youngsters were no longer in danger, whereas 19 cops waited in the faculty hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde city and colleges police departments continue to sit down for interviews and supply statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.