SCAPEGOAT

Uvalde Teacher Closed the Door Gunman Used to Enter School, Lawyer Says

A teacher had propped open a door at Robb Elementary School to carry food in from her car but closed it after hearing that a man with a gun was near.

Although a teacher at Robb Elementary School propped open a door the day of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting that left 21 dead, she closed the door before the gunman accessed the school, her lawyer said. Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old who shot and killed 19 students and two teachers and injured 17 others last Tuesday, did enter Robb Elementary through the door the teacher had previously propped open with a rock so she could carry in food from her car. While doing so, the teacher witnessed Ramos crash his truck outside the school, so she rushed back to the building to call 911 to report the crash, said Don Flanary, her San Antonio-based lawyer. After she went back outside while on the phone with 911, someone at the funeral home nearby yelled that Ramos had a gun, so she ran back inside the school and pulled the door closed, believing it would lock automatically, Flanary said. Surveillance video and audio also confirms that the teacher removed the rock propping the door open and closed it behind her, said an unnamed law enforcement official who reviewed the footage. Officials are currently investigating why this door and other doors at the school were not locked the day of the shooting.