An outside door to Robb Elementary School was not closed when a teacher closed it shortly before a gunman used it to enter and kill 19 students and two teachers, and investigators sought to determine why, he said Tuesday. the state police.
State police initially said a teacher had opened the door shortly before the shooter entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24th.
Now they have determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, opened the door with a stone, but then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, said Travis Considine, head of campus communications. Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door would not close.
“We checked that the door closed. The door did not close. We know a lot and now investigators are investigating why it was not locked,” Considine said.
Interact with the sequence of events, with an annotated chronology of the school shooting in the 3D model below Andrew Williams / NBC; Getty ImagesA photographic illustration of Robb Elementary School’s transition to a 3D model. Click to explore.
Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s press conference, when authorities first said the door had been left open. At the time, authorities did not say what was used to open the door.
Considine said the teacher initially opened the door, but ran back to pick up her phone and call 911 when the gunman crashed his truck on campus.
“He came back while he was on the phone, he heard someone shout, ‘He has a gun!’ did. said Considine.
San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, whom he does not call, closed the door after realizing a gunman was loose. He had initially opened it to take food from a car to a classroom, the lawyer said.
“She pulled out the rock when she came in again. She remembers closing the door while telling 911 she was firing,” Flanary told the newspaper.
Funerals are scheduled for the next two and a half weeks for the 19 children and two teachers who were killed in that classroom on May 24th.
“She thought the door would lock because that door was supposed to always close,” Flanary said.
Fanary did not immediately return the phone messages left in her office at The Associated Press.
Investigators are also trying to interview Uvalde Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police said was the commander of the school shooting scene while it happened.
Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo treated the active scene as a hostage situation and as if the children were no longer at risk, while 19 police officers were waiting in the hallway. ‘school outside the classroom where the shooter was. .
McCraw said the “wrong decision” said the focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.
Other officers from the city’s police departments and schools in Uvalde remain seated for interviews and making statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.