Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially stated a teacher had propped the door open shortly before the shooter entered the school 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, 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 Security. However, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

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

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

“She got here again out while on her phone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary College worker, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the loose. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer said.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two academics who were killed in that classroom on May 24.

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

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

Investigators are additionally still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the varsity capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids have been not in danger, while 19 police officers waited in the college hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.