A Texas teacher already reeling after the mass shooting inside Robb Elementary has been made to feel all the more devastated by authorities who incorrectly stated she propped open a door that allowed the gunman to enter the school.
“It’s traumatic for her when it’s insinuated that she’s involved, the door open,” attorney Don Flanary, who represents the unidentified educator, told ABC News. “She’s heartbroken.”
In the moments before the massacre on May 24, Flanary said the teacher walked outside to meet a colleague dropping her off some food, briefly propping open a door leading back inside the building. Then out of nowhere, she spotted a gray Ford pickup racing down the roadway, which ultimately crashed a short distance from the Uvalde school.
Salvador Ramos, armed and sporting a tactical vest, emerged from the vehicle and then started in the teacher’s direction.
“She sees him throw a bag over the fence and he has the weapon, the gun, around his chest,” Flanary told ABC. “He hops the fence and starts running at her.”
Flanary emphasized that his client acted quickly, explaining that she “immediately turns and she runs inside, kicks the rock out, slams the door.”
At press conference in wake of the classroom carnage, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Ramos accessed the school through a door propped open by a teacher. He then barricaded himself inside a classroom and unleashed gunfire, fatally striking 19 students and two teachers.
Days later, police walked back the claim, confirming that the door was shut, but was not locked at the time. An investigation has since been launched into why the automatic lock did not engage.
“She thought she was going to die herself. She was waiting for him to come in,” Flanary said. “Obviously she’s heartbroken with all the lives lost.”
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