Texas school shooting: Lawyer, DPS say teacher closed door that gunman entered after propping it open

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A teacher at Robb Elementary School who left a door propped open moments before last week's attack had actually closed the door before the gunman entered, but it did not lock, the teacher's lawyer and authorities said Tuesday. 

"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," Don Flanary, a lawyer for the teacher, told San Antonio Express-News on Tuesday. 

"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."

Law enforcement, and other first responders, gather outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.  (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw initially said Friday that the teacher left a door popped open on the west side of the building at 11:27 a.m., just one minute before Salvador Ramos crashed a truck about 100 yards from the school and started firing shots at two people who were standing outside a nearby funeral home. 

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Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday that additional surveillance footage revealed that the teacher did actually close the door. 

"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 told the Associated Press. 

Children run to safety after escaping from a window during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School where a gunman killed nineteen children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. May 24, 2022.  (Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News/Handout via REUTERS)

Ramos entered that unlocked door at 11:33 a.m. and made his way to a pair of adjoining classrooms, where he remained for about an hour before a Border Patrol team breached the door and killed him. The gunman murdered 19 children and two adults. 

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A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation also told San Antonio Express-News that the teacher removed a rock that was keeping the door open and "slammed it shut."