Texas school shooting: Lawyer says teacher closed door that gunman entered after propping it open

A lawyer for a teacher that the Texas Department of Public Safety says left a door ajar just before a gunman entered Robb Elementary School is contesting that timeline, saying that the teacher actually closed the door as she called 911 when she saw there was an active shooter. 

“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.”

Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw said Friday that the teacher propped open a door 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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“The teacher runs to the room 132 to retrieve a phone, and that same team teacher walks back to the exit door and door remains propped open,” McCraw said Friday. 

“The bottom line is, we’ve reported what happened is that back door was propped open, it wasn’t supposed to be propped open, it was supposed to be locked. And certainly the teacher that went back for her cell phone, propped it open again. So that was an access point that the subject used.” 

Ramos entered that door at 11:33 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. 

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.” 

The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday about the conflicting timelines.