Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

State police initially stated a instructor had propped the door open shortly earlier than the shooter entered the varsity in Uvalde, Texas, on Could 24.

They've now determined that the instructor, 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, stated Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division 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 much and now investigators are wanting into why it did not lock,” Considine mentioned.

Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s news conference when authorities first stated 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 but ran again inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

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

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary told 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 loose. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a car to a classroom, the legal professional said.

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

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

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

Flanary didn't instantly return telephone messages left at his office from The Related Press.

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the varsity capturing scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo treated the lively scene as a hostage scenario and as if kids had been no longer in danger, while 19 police officers waited in the faculty hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments proceed to sit down for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.