Uvalde teacher had resigned herself to the idea that she was going to die, says lawyer

(CNN) --

Emilia Marin, an educator at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was walking out of school on May 24 to help a colleague bring food for an end-of-the-year party when she saw a plane crash. vehicle, according to his attorney.

What followed would be "the most horrible thing anyone could endure," his attorney, Don Flanary, told CNN, as a shooter would kill 19 students and two teachers in the deadliest school mass shooting in nearly a decade.

Marin entered the school to report the alleged accident and had left the door propped open with a rock, according to Flanary, who is helping Marin with a possible civil lawsuit against the makers of the gun used in the massacre.

When Marin returned to the door, still on the line with the 911 operators, she saw her colleague fleeing and heard people across the street at a funeral home yell, "He's got a gun!"

Marin saw the attacker, 18, approaching, Flanary said, so he kicked the door shut and ran into a nearby adjoining classroom, hiding under a counter.

That's where Marin heard the shots, Flanary said, first outside and then inside the school.

advertising

"Frozen" with fear, Marin received a text from her daughter asking if she was safe, and eventually had to silence her phone, convinced the attacker would hear her, her attorney said.

"She thought he was going to go in and kill her, and she resigned herself to it," Flanary said.

The attacker went to another classroom and never met Marin, his attorney said.

His grandson, who attends Robb Elementary School, was also elsewhere and survived.

However, Marin's ordeal worsened in the days following the shooting, after authorities said the attacker entered the school through a door that had been left open.

"She felt alone, like she couldn't get through the mourning," Flanary said.

"She was questioning herself: 'didn't I close it?'" she added.

• A dying Uvalde teacher was on the phone with her husband, a school police officer whose boss decided not to enter her classroom, according to a report.

The Texas Department of Public Safety later clarified that the assailant had instead entered through an unlocked door.

The whole experience, however, has taken a toll on his mental health, Flanary said.

Marin had to go to a neurologist because "he can't stop shaking," she said.

Although Marin has no plans to sue the school, police or the school district, Flanary said, a petition was filed Thursday to call Daniel Defense, the maker of the firearm used in the attack, to testify, according to a court filing. obtained by CNN.

The pre-suit motion does not accuse the gun manufacturer of any wrongdoing, but rather purports to investigate whether the plaintiff has any basis to bring a claim against Daniel Defense.

CNN has contacted Daniel Defense for comment on the request.

An altar is seen around the sign for Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

State senator asks for more answers

Investigators from local, state and federal agencies say they are working to determine more about the circumstances behind the shooting.

Search warrants have been issued for the shooter's cell phone, his vehicle and his grandparents' home, court records obtained by CNN show.

The warrant authorizes investigators to conduct a forensic download of the cell phone, which was found next to his body, to search for a motive.

However, criticism continues over whether authorities responded quickly enough to neutralize the shooter, as well as a lack of transparency by some law enforcement officials in the aftermath of the shooting.

• ANALYSIS |

  National trauma over Uvalde deepens as disturbing questions about police response

According to a timeline published by the Texas Police Department, the minors made multiple 911 calls inside the classroom where the shooter was, while police waited outside the classroom.

A Texas state lawmaker raised questions at a news conference Thursday about whether information about 911 calls from inside Robb Elementary School was properly relayed to first responders at the scene.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez said he spoke with the agency that regulates 911 calls, the State Emergency Communications Commission, and was told the 911 calls were handled and forwarded to city police deployed to the scene.

What is unclear, however, is whether that information was passed on to the School District Police Chief, who was the on-scene commander of the incident.

"He was communicating with an agent from the Uvalde Police and the state agency with which I have spoken has not told me who he is," Gutiérrez said.

Gutierrez also said that he wants to know more about what was happening at the school that day.

"I want to know where the cops were in that classroom. I want to know how many of my cops were in there, how many state cops were in there. I want to know how many state cops were out. I want to know how many feds were in for 19 minutes, I mean, for 45 minutes." Gutierrez told reporters.

"I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls," he said.

CNN has contacted the State Emergency Communications Commission, Uvalde Police and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District for comment on Gutierrez's remarks.

The judge recounts the attempt to identify the victims

As the community gathers to bury the deceased, the Justice of the Peace who was on duty to act as de facto coroner recalled the tragic scene.

Judge Lalo Diaz Jr. learned of the "armed assailant" situation from a police alert on social media, he told CNN's Poppy Harlow on Thursday, fearing the possibility of fatalities.

• "She was going to be someone."

  Family and friends remember the victims of the Uvalde school shooting during the first funerals

But soon after, "I hear the ambulances and I hear the officers and the sirens," he said.

Diaz and a medical examiner from nearby Bexar County were called to the elementary school and entered the crime scene hours after a Border Patrol tactical team killed the shooter.

"My mind was racing," Diaz said, "knowing I was going to see something that was just inconceivable, that I never wanted to see."

There, among the murdered minors, Díaz recognized the teacher Irma García, whom he knew from when they went to school together.

Diaz was also friends with her husband, Joe Garcia, who died of a heart attack two days after the shooting.

"It breaks my heart," Diaz said.

"I'm looking at this devastation that these guns have done to the kids and these teachers, and it's just unconscionable."

Funeral services for the Garcias were held Wednesday, and additional funerals for the other dead will continue in the coming days.

-- CNN's Rebekah Riess, Chris Boyette, Amir Vera, Holly Yan, Elizabeth Joseph, Aya Elamroussi and Haley Burton contributed reporting.

Massacre in TexasUvalde