The spokesperson of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which is investigating the attack, said that the teacher left the door open for a while by placing a stone in front of him, but when the attacker entered the school yard, he removed the stone and closed the door.
In the first reports published, it was claimed that the teacher who accidentally left the door open violated the rules. In the US, teachers are required to keep doors closed and locked in schools.
But Don Flanary, the unnamed teacher’s lawyer, told the San Antonio Express-News on Tuesday that his client “closed the door that should have always been locked, thinking it would be locked.”
Flanary said the teacher, who had placed a stone in front of the door to carry food from a car to the classroom and left it open, “returned to the building and lifted the stone with his foot” after realizing that the attacker had entered the schoolyard.
DPS spokesperson Travis Considine stated that the door was closed according to the video footage, while investigators were investigating why the door was not locked.
Law enforcement at the school and in the city has faced intense surveillance since the attack last week.
DPS chief Steven McCraw confirmed at a press conference on Friday that 19 police officers were lingering in the hallway as the gunman locked him in a classroom.
McCraw said that the police at the scene thought that the attacker was only barricaded and hiding inside, and they concluded that he did not actively shoot at the students.
However, at that time, the attacker continued to shoot 7-10-year-old children inside.
McCraw said it was “the wrong decision.”