Teacher falsely accused of leaving Uvalde school door open considers legal action

A teacher at the school in Uvalde, Texas, who police falsely claimed had left open a door through which a gunman entered, felt alone and could not grieve afterwards, her lawyer has said.

In a series of interviews with US media including CNN, NPR and the San Antonio Express-News in Texas, an attorney for Emilia Marin said his client “second guessed herself” about the door. She is considering a possible legal action against the manufacturer of the assault rifle used by the gunman to kill 19 children and two teachers at the school last week.

Lawyer Don Flanary said Ms Marin was outside Robb Elementary School before lunch on May 24th helping another staff member bringing food for an end-of-term party when she saw a car crash nearby. She went inside again, got her phone and called the emergency services. The door was left propped open with a rock. Her lawyer said when she went outside again workers at a funeral home across the road were shouting “he has got a gun”.

Mr Flanary said: “And then she looks over and sees him throw a backpack over the fence and then sees him with the [semi-automatic assault rifle] slung over his shoulder, sees him hop the fence and start running towards her. So she immediately ran back inside, kicked the rock out and slammed the door.”

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He said Ms Marin thought the door would automatically lock – but it didn’t. On Friday of last week, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) director Steven McCraw told a press conference that the gunman entered the school through a back door that a teacher had left propped open. This week the DPS confirmed the essential details set out by Mr Flanary. It told the Associated Press: “We did verify she closed the door.”

It maintained that the door should have locked when it closed, but it did not: “The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock.”

The comments represented the latest shift in the official police position in relation to the attack on the school in Uvalde.

School shooters: why do they do it?

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The killing of 19 children and two teachers in a Texas elementary school has put the spotlight back on gun control - for now. But Robin Kowalski, a US-based professor of psychology who has studied school shooters, tells In the News that other factors are being overlooked, like rejection, bullying and mental health issues.There are ways to tackle these problems. But when mental health is discussed in the context of mass shootings, it's more likely as a deflection from gun control proposals than with any genuine intention to tackle the problem. Plus: Washington Correspondent Martin Wall on the investigation into police mishandling of the Robb Elementary shootings.

Mr Flanary said Ms Marin was not planning to sue the school, police or school district but had taken initial steps with regard to a potential case against the manufacturer of the gun used in the attack. A petition was filed on Thursday to depose the company, Daniel Defense.

Last week the DPS said that children trapped inside a schoolroom with the gunman had called emergency services pleading for help but that police had remained in the hallway outside for nearly an hour for specialist backup in the mistaken belief that there were no people remaining at risk.

Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez said on Friday that he understood the emergency calls were passed on to the Uvalde police but that the incident commander on the ground in the school during the attack did not have access to these radio communications. He said he did not know why this was the case. He also asked whether personnel from other police agencies and first responders on the scene were listening to the emergency calls from the children in the classroom.

He said he had been expecting on Friday an official police report on where officers were situated in the school on the day but that this would not now be made available. He said the district attorney had taken over the investigation and ordered that no details be shared with the media and politicians at this point.

Meanwhile talks were continuing between Republican and Democratic politicians and their staffs on whether an agreement on gun control reforms can be achieved in the aftermath of a series of mass shootings. On Thursday, president Joe Biden urged the US Congress to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines or alternatively raise the age for purchasing assault rifles from 18 to 21 years. Mr Biden said too many schools and other everyday places had “become killing fields”.

The president said that for the last two decades, more school-aged children in the US had died from guns than on-duty police officers and active-duty military personnel combined.

“For God sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept? How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say enough?”