Texas police say door shooter used to enter school failed to lock when it was closed, teacher did not leave it open

Texas police said this week they are investigating their finding that the door the Robb Elementary School gunman used to enter the school last week was in fact closed, but had failed to automatically lock as it was designed to do.

The new information further contradicts the initial report given by Uvalde officials saying a teacher at the school had propped the door open with a rock before the shooter entered the building.

Texas police now say they have evidence that the teacher had closed the door once they realized a shooter was on campus, but unknown to the teacher, the door did not lock like it was supposed to, allowing the gunman access to the interior of the school.

“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,” said chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety David Considine.

He explained that the teacher had propped the door open while she ran inside to get her phone after the shooter crashed his truck into a ditch near the school. “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,” Considine said, removing the rock from the doorway.

The revelation about the door and its faulty lock is just one more facet in the wide-ranging controversy over the responses and alleged failures of law enforcement and officials in Uvalde.

Chief of the school district police, Pete Arredondo, has been under scrutiny for his mishandling of the shooting response, during which officials reportedly waited over an hour before entering the classroom and neutralizing the situation.