Police – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Price

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

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

They have now decided that the instructor, 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, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety. However, Considine stated, the door didn't lock.

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

Investigators confirmed the element by means of further 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 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 back out whereas on her cellphone, she heard somebody yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him bounce the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine mentioned.

San Antonio lawyer Don Flanary instructed 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 free. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer 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 next two-and-a-half weeks for the 19 kids and two lecturers who have been killed in that classroom on Might 24.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always purported to be locked,” Flanary stated.

Flanary did not instantly return phone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

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

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has mentioned Arredondo treated the energetic scene as a hostage state of affairs and as if kids were not in danger, while 19 police officers waited within the faculty hallway outdoors the classroom the place the shooter was.

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

Other officers in the Uvalde metropolis and faculties police departments continue to take a seat for interviews and provide statements, however Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.