Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

An exterior door at Robb Elementary School didn't lock when it was closed by a trainer shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two academics, leaving investigators looking to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

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

They've now determined that the trainer, 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 Department of Public Security. However, Considine stated, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail via extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention 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 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 got here again out whereas on her phone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him soar the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary informed the San Antonio Express-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 carry meals from a car to a classroom, the attorney mentioned.

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

Funerals are planned for the next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 children and two teachers 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 speculated to be locked,” Flanary stated.

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

Investigators are also still making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have mentioned was the commander of the school capturing scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, has stated Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids had been no longer at risk, whereas 19 cops waited within the school hallway outside the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers within the Uvalde metropolis and colleges police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and supply statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.