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A 17-year-old high school student been identified as the shooter in an incident that occurred at 7:37 a.m. Thursday at Perry High School. The suspected shooter, Dylan Butler, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
One student, a sixth grader at the middle school, was killed. Police said the student may have been at the high school to take part in its breakfast program. Four other students and one school administrator were injured at the scene.
Police say Butler had posted on social media prior to the incident. After arriving at the scene, police say they located Butler, who appeared to have fatally shot himself. He’d been armed with a pump action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun.
Police say authorities also found an improvised explosive device on the scene.
The incident in Iowa has been listed as the fourth mass shooting in the country in 2024, according to the nonprofit database Gun Violence Archive.
The shooting was on the first day of school after winter break, before classes began that morning. Police say because the shooting happened before school started, there were few students and faculty inside the building. However, a few before-school programs were taking place at the high school.
Police response to the incident was enormous, with West Des Moines Police, Urbandale Police, Granger EMS and Iowa State Patrol all reporting to the scene. Both ATF and the FBI are assisting in the ongoing investigation of the incident, according to police.
Perry, Iowa is a town of around 8,000 in Dallas County, situated around 40 miles northwest of the capital city of Des Moines. It is considered part of the Des Moines metro area. The Perry Community School District serves 1,785 students in its elementary, middle and high schools. Perry High School is the only high school in the Perry Community School District. The high school is a minority-majority school, serving a 64% minority population. Perry is one of several spots around the U.S. with a growing Latino population.
Matt Sieren and Madeleine King contributed to this report.