Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Value

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

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

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

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

Investigators confirmed the element by way of additional video footage reviewed since final Friday’s information conference when authorities first said 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 mentioned the trainer 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 again out while on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Specific-News that the Robb Elementary College worker, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the free. She had initially propped it open to hold food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer stated.

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

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

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

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

Investigators are also still attempting to interview Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the varsity taking pictures scene while it occurred.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo handled the active scene as a hostage situation and as if youngsters have been not in danger, whereas 19 law enforcement officials waited in the school hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

McCraw known as that the “unsuitable determination,” saying the main target of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

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