Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

An exterior door at Robb Elementary College did not lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly earlier than a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two academics, leaving investigators looking to find out why, state police mentioned Tuesday.

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

They've now decided 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 Division of Public Security. But, Considine mentioned, the door did not lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element through extra video footage reviewed since last Friday’s information convention 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 mentioned the teacher 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 while on her cellphone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” eradicating the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-Information that the Robb Elementary College 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 hold meals from a automotive to a classroom, the legal professional mentioned.

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

Funerals are deliberate for the subsequent two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 youngsters and two academics who had been killed in that classroom on May 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is all the time speculated to be locked,” Flanary mentioned.

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

Investigators are also still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have stated was the commander of the school shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo handled the lively scene as a hostage situation and as if kids have been not at risk, while 19 police officers waited within the school hallway exterior the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Different officers in the Uvalde metropolis and schools police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for 2 days, Considine said.