A law enforcement investigative report on a fatal shooting at a high school in a small Iowa town in January reveals new details of the shooting, including that the teenage gunman tried to livestream his actions.
The city of Perry, located about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, was rocked when 17-year-old Perry High School student Dylan Butler opened fire on students and staff before classes started on Jan. 4. school day after winter break. Butler took his own life with a single shot, minutes after he started shooting.
The shooting took place in the school’s common area, where about 50 students and staff had gathered for breakfast before classes. According to the reportButler arrived at the school at 7:12 a.m. carrying a shotgun, a revolver, a knife and a homemade explosive device and immediately went to a bathroom near the common area. While in the restroom, Butler posted on social media and began livestreaming, the report said, without detailing the nature of the messages or the livestreaming content.
He emerged 23 minutes later with shotgun in hand and started shooting. Within the first 24 seconds, Butler fatally shot the 11-year-old sixth grader Ahmir Jolliff and injured four other students and Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, the report said.
The report, written by the Dallas County Attorney’s Office and summarizing investigations by several agencies, contains a warning to readers of the disturbing details it contains. The report also confirms the heroic actions of Marburger and others to intervene, describing how director and deputy director Brad Snowgren moved to the source of the gunfire when it began.
Snowgren activated an alarm to notify first responders of an active shooting at the school 10 seconds after the first shot was fired and 25 seconds before the initial 911 call, the report said. Within two minutes the first police officer entered the school. Officials had initially reported that law enforcement entered the school in “less than seven minutes.”
The report says Marburgerwho was wounded seconds after the shooting, was given the opportunity to escape the building, but remained inside and begged Butler to stop shooting. Over a minute later, the wounded Marburger confronted Butler again. Butler responded by shooting and seriously wounding Marburger, who then left through an exit. Marburger died days later in a hospital in Des Moines from his injuries.
Dallas County Attorney Jeannine Ritchie said her office has concluded that Butler acted alone and that the investigation found no evidence that anyone had specific knowledge of Butler’s plans or assisted him in the shooting. Investigators have also not determined how or where Butler obtained the shotgun he used, but evidence suggests it came from outside his home and was taken without the owner’s consent or knowledge.
“The evidence suggests that his actions that morning were random and driven by a desire to commit suicide with the hostile intent to take others with him,” Ritchie wrote.
Although school staff had regular contact with Butler, they had no reports of Butler’s intentions on the day of the shooting, according to the report. Butler was not the subject of any previous law enforcement investigation, threat assessment or intelligence information, the report said.