Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

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

They have 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security. But, Considine said, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail by means of extra video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information convention when authorities first said 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 stated the instructor initially propped the door open however ran back inside to get her cellphone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came 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 again inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio legal professional Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary Faculty worker, 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 hold meals from a automotive to a classroom, the legal professional said.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Impartial School 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 head of the Texas Division of Public Security, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids had been not at risk, while 19 police officers waited in the college hallway exterior the classroom where the shooter was.

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

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