Perry, Iowa, shooting: Sixth grader dead and five others injured after shooting at high school
January 04, 2024 04:38 PM
One student is dead and five other victims are hurt after a school shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. Police said the suspected shooter is also dead.
Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation, said on Thursday afternoon the shooter had a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officers also discovered an improvised explosive device in the school that law enforcement officers “rendered safe.”
A sixth grade student was killed during the shooting. Four of the injured victims are also students, and the fifth victim is a school administrator. Mortvedt did not comment on the exact condition of each victim but said one is believed to be in critical condition and that the others are believed to have non-life-threatening injuries.
Police identified the shooter as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at Perry High School, which is connected to the middle school. Butler was armed with a pump action shotgun and a small caliber handgun, Mortvedt said.
Mortvedt said a motive has not been established at this time.
“Butler made a number of social media posts in and around the time of the shooting,” Mortvedt said. “Law enforcement is working to secure those pieces of evidence. All evidence thus far suggested Butler acted alone.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) spoke at the press conference, thanking law enforcement and sharing condolences to the families of the victims.
“It’s impossible to understand why anything like this happens,” Reynolds said. “But again, I want you to know that we’ll work tirelessly to get the answers so that we can prevent it from happening again.”
Local outlet Iowa Starting Line spoke to several students who said they were friends of the shooter, whom they identified as Butler before authorities confirmed it. Butler’s friends said the shooter sent farewell messages to his friends about 20 minutes before the first reports of the attack, which police said began around 7:37 a.m.
“I was working, and I got a text message [from him] telling me that he was thankful for me and that he was glad that he met me and that I was a really good friend,” one of the students told Iowa Starting Line.
Another friend said Butler had been bullied by other students since elementary school.
“He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment,” a student said to the outlet. “Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No! God, no.”
Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at an earlier press conference that an officer responded within seven minutes of the first report of an active shooter, which came in at 7:37 a.m. The sheriff said the school day had not started, so there was a limited number of students in the building at the time.
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Mortvedt said it is his understanding that a breakfast program was happening inside Perry High School before school began, “so there may have been students of different grades in the school at that time.” He said the shooting was contained to the high school.
Thursday was the first day back for Perry Community School District students for the second semester. The district, composed of an elementary school, middle school, and high school, is made up of about 1,800 students, per the website. Classes at Perry High School were canceled for the day.