Uvalde teacher did not leave door propped open that gunman used to get in, says lawyer
Lawyer says that door was shut as gunman closed in on Robb Elementary but may not have locked
An Uvalde teacher did not leave a door propped open that allowed the gunman to enter Robb Elementary School, her lawyer says, despite claims to the contrary from Texas law enforcement.
Last week Colonel Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a news conference that a door to the school was left ajar by the teacher who ran outside when she heard Salvador Ramos crash his truck.
Lawyer Don Flanary says that the teacher had initially propped the door open to get food from a car, but actually closed it shut after realising the heavily armed gunman was heading towards the school.
“She saw the wreck. She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. 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,” Mr Flanary told The San Antonio News-Express.
“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. 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.”
Once inside the school Ramos, 18, used an AR-15-style assault rifle to murder 19 students and two teachers inside an adjoining classroom, while police waited in a corridor outside before eventually forcing entry and killing him.
A law enforcement source told the newspaper that surveillance video confirmed that the teacher, who is not being named for safety reasons, removed the rock and closed the door.
“She slammed it shut,” said the source, who requested anonymity from the newspaper.
Investigators are trying to establish if the door was unlocked before the incident or not working when the gunman entered the building last week.
The source told the newspaper that school employees have reported that at least one other lock on a door in the building also did not work properly.
Investigators have also been told that at least one other entry into the building was not locked during the incident.