If true the door was outward opening that could have definitely slowed things down. This is why you should have breaching equipment in all patrol cars. The fire department would have had one too. A ram, sledgehammer, and halligan at a minimum. Breacher rounds for a shotgun also.
Rep. Gonzales: Uvalde police response delayed by ‘scrambling’ to find tools to pry open steel door
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told "Fox News Live" Saturday that while on the ground in Uvalde, he spoke to a wounded officer who told him police response units were "scrambling" to find a tool to open the school door to get to the gunman on Tuesday.
He learned that the locked steel door only opened outward, "not inward," making it more difficult to break down.