PERRY, Iowa — A teen armed with a shotgun and a handgun unleashed terror at an Iowa highschool on the primary day of classes in the brand new yr, authorities said, killing a sixth grader and wounding five others as people hunkered down in classrooms, barricaded offices and fled the barrage of bullets.
The suspect, a 17-year-old student at the college in Perry, died of what investigators consider was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official said. An administrator, later identified by his alma mater as Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, was among the many five wounded Thursday as students returned from winter break.
Authorities identified the shooter as Dylan Butler, 17, but provided no details about a possible motive. Two friends and their mother who spoke with The Associated Press said Butler was a quiet one who had been bullied for years.
Authorities said Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Mitch Mortvedt, the state investigation division’s assistant director, said during a news conference that authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device and rendered it protected.
The suspect’s motive was being investigated and authorities were looking into “a lot of social media posts” he made across the time of the shooting, Mortvedt added.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said federal and state investigators were interviewing Butler’s friends and analyzing Butler’s social media profiles, including posts on TikTok and Reddit.
Shortly before Thursday’s shooting, Butler posted a photograph on TikTok inside the lavatory of Perry High School, the official said. The photo was captioned “now we wait” and the song “Stray Bullet” by the German band KMFDM accompanied it. Investigators have also found other photos Butler posted posing with firearms, in accordance with the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Sisters Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, each 17, said alongside their mother, Alita, that Butler was bullied relentlessly since elementary school, however it escalated recently when his younger sister began getting picked on, too. His parents brought it as much as the college, they said, and that was the “last straw” for Butler.
“He was hurting. He got drained. He got uninterested in the bullying. He got uninterested in the harassment,” Yesenia Roeder Hall, 17, said. “Was it a sensible idea to shoot up the college? No. God, no.”
Calls to Perry Community Schools’ Superintendent Clark Wicks, in addition to school board members, were unanswered Thursday, and an emailed request for comment was not immediately returned.
Police arrived inside minutes after an energetic shooter was reported at 7:37 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.
Perry High School senior Ava Augustus was awaiting a counselor in a college office when she heard three shots. Unable to flee through a small window, she and others barricaded the door and were able to throw things if needed.
“After which we hear ‘He’s down. You possibly can exit,’” Augustus said through tears. ”And I run and you possibly can just see glass all over the place, blood on the ground. I get to my automobile they usually’re taking a woman out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg.”
Three gunshot victims were treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, a spokesperson said. Others were taken to a second hospital, a spokesperson for MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center confirmed.
Mortvedt said one person was in critical condition however the injuries didn’t seem like life-threatening, and the others were stable.
Lots of of individuals gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil Thursday evening at a park where hours earlier, students had been delivered to reunite with their families after the shooting. Bundled up against freezing temperatures, they listened to pastors from many religions and heard a message of hope in each English and Spanish.
A post on the highschool’s Facebook page said it will be closed Friday and counseling services could be available for college students, faculty and others locally.
“This senseless tragedy has shaken our entire state to its core,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said.
In Washington, President Joe Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland were briefed on the shooting.
Mass shootings across the U.S. have long brought calls for stricter gun laws from gun safety advocates, and Thursday’s did inside hours. But the thought has been a non-starter for a lot of Republicans, particularly in rural, GOP-leaning states like Iowa, which is able to hold its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses Jan. 15.
As of July 2021, Iowa doesn’t require a permit to buy a handgun or carry a firearm in public, though it mandates a background check for anyone buying a handgun with out a permit.
Perry has about 8,000 residents and is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, on the sting of the state capital’s metropolitan area, and about five hours south of St. Paul. It’s home to a big pork-processing plant and low-slung, single-story homes spread amongst trees now shorn of their leaves by winter. The highschool and middle school are connected, sitting on the east fringe of town.
The highschool is an element of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District. Perry is more diverse than Iowa as a complete. Census figures show 31% of its residents are Hispanic, compared with lower than 7% statewide. Those figures also show nearly 19% of the town’s residents were born outside the U.S.
Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway when he heard shots and dashed right into a classroom, in accordance with his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid within the classroom before texting his father.
Kevin Shelley, who drives a garbage truck, told his boss he needed to run. “It was probably the most scared I’ve been in my entire life,” he said.
He later posted a photograph on Facebook of his son being treated on the Methodist Medical Center and said the boy was feeling effective.
“I’m still shaking,” he added, “and tho I dont show it I’m not OK.”
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Fingerhut reported from Sioux City, Iowa. Associated Press author 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 from Minneapolis; Lindsay Whitehurst from Washington; Mike Balsamo from Recent York City; and John Hanna from Topeka, Kansas. AP researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from Recent York City.