Uvalde teacher who officials mistakenly said left door open is traumatized and heartbroken, attorney says
A teacher at Robb Elementary School has been traumatized and heartbroken since Texas officials incorrectly made initial statements claiming she left a door propped open that the Uvalde gunman used to enter the building before carrying out last week's mass shooting, her lawyer told ABC News in an interview Thursday.
"It's traumatic for her when it's insinuated that she's involved, the door open," attorney Don Flanary, who represents the Robb Elementary School teacher, told ABC News correspondent Marcus Moore in an exclusive interview. "She's heartbroken."
Flanary told ABC News that prior to the shooting, the teacher walked out the door to retrieve food from a colleague outside, where she saw the gunman crash a gray Ford pickup truck, then exit the vehicle and head her way, toward the school, armed with a gun.
"She sees him throw a bag over the fence and he has the weapon, the gun, around his chest," Flanary said. "He hops the fence and starts running at her."
Flanary said the teacher then "immediately turns and she runs inside, kicks the rock out, slams the door."
Back inside the school, Flanary said, she heard gunshots.
"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."
At a press conference after the shooting, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that the teacher had left the door propped open prior to the gunman entering the school.
"The teacher runs to the room, 132, to retrieve a phone, and that same teacher walks back to the exit door and the door remains propped open," McCraw said at a press conference last Friday.
But just days later the claim was walked back. Texas Department of Public Safety press secretary Ericka Miller confirmed to ABC News that investigators had determined that the teacher had closed the door -- but the door did not lock.
Law enforcement is looking into why the door failed to lock, DPS confirmed to ABC News.
In the meantime, the teacher's attorney told ABC News that his office is filing a petition for information about Daniel Defense, the company that made the AR-style semi-automatic rifle used in the attack.
"We can't bring the kids back, but we can find out who's responsible. We need to find the people who put the guns in his hands responsible," he said.
