Police say a 17-year-old killed a sixth grader and injured five in an Iowa school shooting
PERRY, Iowa — A 17-year-old opened fire at a small-town Iowa high school on the first day of school after winter break, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five others Thursday as students barricaded themselves in offices, classrooms entered and fled in panic.
The suspect, a student at the Perry school, died of what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official said. Authorities said one of the five injured was an administrator, later identified as Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger by a school district in eastern Iowa where he graduated from high school.
Authorities identified the shooter as Dylan Butler, 17, and did not provide information on a possible motive. Two friends and their mother who spoke to The Associated Press said Butler was a quiet person who was bullied for years.
Perry has a population of about 8,000 and is located about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, on the edge of the state capital metropolitan area. It is home to a large pork processing plant and low-slung, one-story houses scattered among trees now stripped of their leaves in winter. The middle school and high school are connected and located on the eastern edge of the city.
Authorities said the shooter had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Mitch Mortvedt, the deputy director of the state Investigative Division, said at a news conference that authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device and made it safe.
The suspect's motive is under investigation and authorities are investigating “a number of social media posts” he made around the time of the shooting, Mortvedt added.
Sisters Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, along with their mother, Alita, said Butler had been bullied relentlessly since elementary school, but it recently escalated when his younger sister was also bullied. School officials did not intervene, they said, and that was “the final straw” for Butler.
'He was in pain. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the intimidation,” said Yesenia Roeder Hall, 17. “Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.”
Perry High School senior Ava Augustus said she was waiting for a counselor in a school office when she heard three shots. Unable to escape through a small window, she and others barricaded the door and stood ready to throw things if necessary.
'And then we hear: 'He's downstairs.' You can go outside,'' Augustus said through tears. “And I'm running and you see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I walk to my car and they take a girl out of the room who has been shot in the leg.'
Three gunshot victims were treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, a spokesman said. Others were taken to a second hospital in Des Moines, a spokesperson for MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center confirmed.
Mortvedt said one person was in critical condition, but the injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. The other victims were stable, he said.
Hundreds of community members gathered Thursday evening for a candlelight prayer vigil in a park where students had been dropped off hours earlier to reunite with their families after the shooting. Bundled against freezing temperatures, they listened to preachers from many faiths and heard a message of hope in both English and Spanish.
A post on the high school's Facebook page said it would be closed Friday and counseling services would be available for students, teachers and others in the community.
Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa lowered to half-staff.
“This senseless tragedy has rocked our entire state,” she said.
In Washington, President Joe Biden and US Attorney General Merrick Garland were briefed on the shooting. FBI agents from the Omaha-Des Moines office are assisting in the investigation led by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
The shooting took place against the backdrop of the looming presidential caucuses in Iowa. GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had a campaign event scheduled for 9 a.m. in Perry, about 1.5 miles from the school, but canceled it for a prayer and intimate conversation with area residents.
Mass shootings in the US have long prompted calls for stricter gun laws from gun safety advocates, and on Thursday that happened within hours. But that idea was a non-starter for many Republicans, especially in rural, Republican-leaning states like Iowa.
As of July 2021, Iowa does not require a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a firearm in public, although it does require a background check for anyone purchasing a handgun without a permit.
Ramaswamy said the shooting is a sign of a “mental illness” in the country. In Des Moines, Republican rival and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said gun violence is “more of a local and national issue” in an interview with the Des Moines Register and NBC News.
The high school in Perry is part of the Perry Community School District with 1,785 students. The city is more diverse than Iowa as a whole. Census figures show that 31% of residents are Hispanic, compared to less than 7% statewide. These figures also show that almost 19% of the city's residents were born outside the US
Authorities said an active shooter was reported at 7:37 a.m. Thursday and officers arrived within minutes. Emergency services surrounded the complex.
“Officers immediately attempted to locate the source of the threat and quickly located what appeared to be the shooter with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Mortvedt said.
Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, was practicing with a jazz band when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, some distance apart.
“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, 'Run!' So we started running.”
Kares and many others from the school were running past the soccer field when she heard people shouting, “Go away! Get out!” She said she heard more shots as she ran, but didn't know how many. She was more concerned about getting home to her three-year-old son.
Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway when he heard gunshots and burst into a classroom, said his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7:36 a.m.
Kevin Shelley, who drives a garbage truck, told his boss to run. “It was the most scared I've been in my entire life,” he said.
He later posted a photo on Facebook of his son being treated at Methodist Medical Center and said the boy was feeling fine.
He added: “I'm still shaking and although I don't show it, I'm not well.”
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Fingerhut reported from Sioux City, Iowa. Associated Press writer Scott McFetridge and photojournalist Andrew Harnik contributed to this report from Perry, Iowa; Jim Salter contributed from O'Fallon, Missouri; Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska. Trisha Ahmed of Minneapolis; Lindsay Whitehurst of Washington; Mike Balsamo of New York City; and John Hanna of Topeka, Kansas. AP researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York City.