Last week Texas officials told us that a Robb Elementary teacher propped open a door to the school, which the gunman used to enter and then massacre 21 people.
But now they are confirming the teacher tried to close the door after hearing gunshots outside, but it didn’t lock for some reason:
Via Newsmax:
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.
State police initially said a teacher had propped the door open shortly before Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.
They have now determined that the teacher, 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 Department of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door that was designed to lock when shut did not lock.
“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock,” Considine said.
Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since Friday’s news conference when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.
Considine said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when Ramos crashed his truck on campus.
“She came back out while on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.
Steve McCraw, the head of DPS, hadn’t said why the teacher initially propped open the door when it was first detailed Friday. The first mention of a door left propped open, which officials now say didn’t happen, led to questions about the teacher’s actions and whether she had made a horrific mistake.
How bizarre that the door didn’t lock. Sounds like this teacher was in a panic and perhaps wasn’t paying close attention to securing the door. Or maybe the door malfunctioned – I don’t know.
What I want to know is why, upon hearing gunshots outside, that other teachers didn’t secure their own classroom doors to keep the gunman out even if he got into the school. That also would have likely prevented this massacre or at least slowed the gunman down.