Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

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

They've now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, however then eliminated 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. However, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the detail through further 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 stated the instructor initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her telephone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out whereas on her phone, she heard someone 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 stated.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary instructed the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary Faculty 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 food 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 informed the newspaper.

Funerals are deliberate for the following two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two academics who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is at all times supposed to be locked,” Flanary said.

Flanary didn't instantly return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are additionally nonetheless making an attempt to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the college shooting scene whereas it happened.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if youngsters have been not at risk, whereas 19 police officers waited within the school hallway outdoors the classroom where the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde city 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.