An exterior door at Robb Elementary School 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.
Investigators initially said the teacher had propped the door open before Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the Uvalde, Texas, school on May 24.
Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when Ramos crashed his truck. But he said, the door that was designed to lock when shut, did not lock.
San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, whom he's not naming, closed the door after realizing that a gunman was on the loose.
"She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident," Flanary told the newspaper. "She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, 'He has a gun!' She saw him jump the fence and he had a gun so she ran back inside."
Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since the Friday news conference when it was first stated the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.
"She kicked the rock away when she went back in," Flanary said. "She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked."
Flanary told the newspaper that the employee had initially propped open the door to carry food from a car to the classroom. He did not immediately return telephone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.
Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school shooting scene while it happened. Other officers in the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to state police requests for two days, Considine said.
A back door at Robb Elementary School, where a gunman entered through to get into a classroom in last week's shooting, is seen in the distance in Uvalde, Texas, Monday, May 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Jolean Olvedo, left, weeps while being comforted by her partner Natalia Gutierrez at a memorial for Robb Elementary School students and teachers who were killed in last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)