Perry High School shooting

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Coordinates: 41°50′23″N 94°04′50″W / 41.8398°N 94.08066°W / 41.8398; -94.08066
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Perry High School shooting
Part of mass shootings in the United States and school shootings in the United States
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LocationPerry High School
Perry, Iowa, U.S.
Coordinates41°50′23″N 94°04′50″W / 41.8398°N 94.08066°W / 41.8398; -94.08066
DateJanuary 4, 2024; 5 days ago (2024-01-04)
c. 7:37 a.m. CST
Attack type
School shooting, mass shooting, murder-suicide
Weapon
Deaths2 (including the perpetrator)
Injured7
PerpetratorDylan Butler

A mass shooting occurred on January 4, 2024, at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, United States. Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at the high school, killed one other student and injured seven students and staff members before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot. It was the first school shooting in the United States in 2024.[1]

Background

Perry High School and Perry Middle School are part of the Perry Community School District in Perry, Iowa. The two schools share a building and are connected by a hallway adjacent to the cafeteria, where the shooting occurred. The cafeteria hosts a breakfast program for all middle and high school students before school.[2]

Shooting

Authorities were first alerted to the shooting at 7:37 a.m. Central Standard Time when middle and high school students were having breakfast before school. According to his daughter, Principal Dan Marburger tried to approach Butler to calm him down and potentially distract him before being wounded, an action credited with allowing students to escape the area.[3] At least one student reported the shooting to their parents at 7:36 a.m.[2]

At 7:44 a.m., the first wave of first responders arrived at the scene.[4] When police entered the school, which was sheltering-in-place, they found the perpetrator armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun and dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The perpetrator's death was ruled a suicide.[5] In a later search of the school, police found a homemade bomb and disarmed it safely.[6]

The middle school attached to the high school was cleared by 8:25 a.m., and the high school was cleared by 8:27 a.m. A nearby elementary school was dismissed by 8:32 a.m.[7] By 9:27 a.m., the FBI and the ATF were on the scene.[4] While some students ran to homes close to the campus after evacuating, others went to reunification centers such as the National Guard Armory, the Perry Lutheran Homes,[8] and the McCreary Community building.[9]

Later in the day, 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff, a sixth-grade student at Perry Middle School, was pronounced dead. Those injured included Principal Marburger, two other staff members,[10] and four students, one of whom was in critical condition. As of January 5, 2024, authorities have yet to release the names of the other injured.[4]

Perpetrator

Police identified the shooter as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, a Perry resident and student of Perry High School.[11][12] Butler's friends and mother described him as being "a quiet person who had been bullied for years" and speculated that the "last straw" may have been school officials' failure to intervene when his younger sister began to be bullied as well.[13] The method Butler used to acquire firearms underage is unknown and under investigation.[14]

Authorities have not provided a motive for the shooting.[13][7] Butler was reported to have made social media posts before the shooting, including a TikTok post showing him in a Perry High School bathroom stall with a duffle bag, captioned with the text "now we wait".[12][13] The post was accompanied by the KMFDM song "Stray Bullet", which had been used on the personal website of Eric Harris, one of the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre.[12]

Reactions

A memorial was planned and held at a local park the same day of the shooting.[3] A local Methodist church offered their building as a sanctuary for those impacted.[2] At least one GoFundMe was created to help those affected.[8]

Local and state education, police, and gun-related bodies and associations released statements supporting affected members of the community and sympathizing with the victims of and families affected by the shooting. A statement from the White House press secretary called the shooting a "heartbreaking and heart-wrenching" event, calling on Congress to act against gun violence. Several political figures, including Vivek Ramaswamy, who was holding a campaign event in Perry on the same day, Governor Kim Reynolds, Nikki Haley, Joni Ernst, Zach Nunn, Chuck Grassley, Rita Hart, and Brenna Bird released statements or social media posts offering condolences to the victims of the attack.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Osborne, Mark; Margolin, Josh (January 4, 2024), At least 1 dead in shooting at Iowa high school; scene now 'secured': Officials, ABC News, retrieved January 4, 2024
  2. ^ a b c Families recount terrifying moments from inside Perry High School during deadly shooting, KCCI, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
  3. ^ a b Yan, Elizabeth Wolfe, Raja Razek, Holly (January 5, 2024), "Iowa school shooter believed to have posted an ominous TikTok video before killing a 6th grader and wounding 5 other people", CNN, retrieved January 5, 2024{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b c "Dispatch recordings provide timeline of Iowa high school shooting", KETV, January 4, 2024
  5. ^ Mortvedt, Mitch (January 5, 2024). "UPDATE TO THE PERRY HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING INVESTIGATION". Iowa Department of Public Safety. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  6. ^ Tumin, Remy; Mather, Victor (January 4, 2024), "Sixth Grader Killed and 5 Others Injured in Iowa School Shooting", The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved January 4, 2024
  7. ^ a b "1 killed, 5 injured by Iowa school shooter on the first day after winter break", NBC News, January 5, 2024, retrieved January 6, 2024
  8. ^ a b Crowder, Courtney; Joens, Philip; Ullmann, Allison (January 4, 2024), "'Glass everywhere,' 'blood on the floor': Inside Iowa high school as a shooter rampaged", The Des Moines Register, retrieved January 5, 2024
  9. ^ "Dispatch recordings provide timeline of Perry High School shooting in Iowa", KCCI, January 5, 2024, retrieved January 5, 2024
  10. ^ "Iowa school shooting: Authorities identify sixth-grader killed in Perry shooting", KCCI, January 5, 2024, retrieved January 6, 2024
  11. ^ Perry shooter identified as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, KCCI, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
  12. ^ a b c 17-year-old Perry High School shooting suspect posted photo on TikTok before shooting, Des Moines Register, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
  13. ^ a b c Riccardi, Nicholas; Fingerhut, Hannah (January 4, 2024), 17-year-old kills sixth grader, wounds five others in Iowa school shooting, police say, Associated Press, retrieved January 4, 2024
  14. ^ Brustkern, Emma (January 5, 2024), "Perry High School shooting prompts questions about Iowa's gun laws", We Are Iowa, retrieved January 5, 2024
  15. ^ Iowa leaders, elected officials react to Perry High School shooting, KCCI, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
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