A teacher who was present during the mass shooting at a Texas school closed the door that the shooter later used to gain access to the building, her lawyer has said.
A senior police official had previously said that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, entered Robb Elementary School through an open door before shooting dead 19 children and two teachers.
However, the teacher's lawyer, Don Flanary, said his client closed the door after realising that a gunman was on the loose. He said the teacher - who has not been named due to safety concerns - called 911 to report an accident near the school involving a black truck, which turned out to be driven by Ramos.
"She saw the wreck,” Mr Flanary said, as reported by the San Antonio Express-News.
“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.
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“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.”
Texas DPS spokesman Travis Considine said on Tuesday that video footage verified the door had been shut. He said investigators were now looking into why it had not locked.
Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, had previously said that Ramos fired shots from an assault-style rifle at several of the school's windows and entered the building through an open door.
McCraw said that the door “wasn’t supposed to be propped open, it was supposed to be locked. And certainly the teacher that went back for her cellphone propped it open again. So that was an access point that the subject used".
Flanary said his client's recollection of the events mostly matches the timeline McCraw provided, but insisted that the teacher did not leave the door open. He added that the teacher specifically recalled pulling and holding onto the door while on the phone with the police.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told the San Antonio Express-News that surveillance video and audio from the scene appears to confirm that the teacher removed the rock that was keeping the door propped open.
“She slammed it shut,” the source said.
