- The Uvalde staffer who Texas authorities wrongly claimed propped the door to the school open was left distraught by the false narrative.
- Emilia “Amy” Marin told ABC News she had to be hospitalized after the Texas officials pointed blame.
- “I was shaking from head to toe,” said Marin, who actually closed the door to Robb Elementary School before the mass shooting.
The staffer at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School who Texas authorities wrongly claimed propped the door to the building open before the gunman carried out the deadly massacre said that she was so distraught after being blamed that she had to be hospitalized.
“I was shaking from head to toe,” Emilia “Amy” Marin, a school aide, told ABC News in a report published on Monday.
Marin explained how her daughter was forced to take her to the hospital after she heard that Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw blamed a teacher for giving the shooter access to the school building the day of the May 24 mass shooting.
“My boss came in and I told her I closed that door,” Marin said, according to ABC News.
In the aftermath of the shooting that left 21 dead, including 19 students, McCraw claimed that security footage showed that the door used by the 18-year-old gunman to enter Robb Elementary School was propped open by a teacher.
Texas officials later walked that narrative back, saying the staff worker actually closed the door when she saw there was a shooter outside, but that the door did not lock.
It was one of the many times Texas authorities changed their story about what happened before, during, and after the massacre. Law enforcement’s response to the shooting has come under heavy scrutiny, including investigations for possibly mishandling the shooting.
“I am suffering mentally, of course, emotionally,” Marin told ABC News, adding, “I am suffering from post-traumatic arthritis, which is very painful.”
Marin said that she continuously replays that day in her mind.
“And I see those victims’ faces. I pray for them every night,” said Marin. “But what I go through, McCraw doesn’t know. Nobody knows. But it was very easy for him to point the finger at me.”
Marin said that a few weeks ago she told her counselor, it would have been “better” if the gunman shot her too “because the pain is unbearable.”
“And when you have people who are higher up in ranks like McCraw, you would think that they know their job well. He has no idea what his words did,” she said.
Marin, who worked as a speech pathologist in the special education program at Robb Elementary School, said she “died” the day of the massacre.
“Right now, I’m lost. Sometimes I go into a dark place. And it’s hard when I’m there, but I tell myself, ‘you can’t let him win. You can’t let him win,'” Marin told ABC News of the gunman. “I’m a fighter. I will be okay. I’m going to learn to live with this.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Monday, but a spokesperson told ABC News in a statement: “At the outset of the investigation, DPS reported that an unnamed teacher at Robb Elementary School used a rock to prop open the door that the shooter used to enter the school building..”
“It was later determined that the same teacher removed the rock from the doorway prior to the arrival of the shooter, and closed the door, unaware that the door was unlocked,” the spokesman said.
He added, “DPS corrected this error in public announcements and testimony and apologizes to the teacher and her family for the additional grief this has caused to an already horrific situation.”
