Six people were shot an an Iowa high school Thursday morning by a 17-year-old student who killed himself before police arrived.
A sixth grade student was killed in the shooting, which took place 20 minutes before the start of school when students from a middle school, which shares a building with the high school, were attending a breakfast program in the high school lunch room, as CrimeOnline reported.
School Principal Dan Marburger was among the injured, the Des Moines Register reported. The other four wounded were students. Mitch Mortvedt, the assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said that at 2 p.m., four of the victims were in stable condition while one was in critical condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect was identified as Dylan Butler, who attended Perry High School, according to Mortvedt, who said Butler was armed with a pump action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Investigators also found an homemade bomb in the school, which was disarmed by the Iowa State Fire Marshal, he said.
Mortvedt said the evidence gathered so far indicates Butler “acted alone.” Shortly before he opened fire, Mortvedt said, Butler posted a selfie on TikTok and made several social media posts “in and around the time of the shooting.” Those posts are part of the investigation, he said.
The selfie showed him in a bathroom stall with a blue duffle bag on the floor and the caption, “now we wait,” the Register said. The post, which disappeared along with the rest of Butler’s social media accounts after the shooting, included the song “Stray Bullet” by KMFDM — a song used on the personal website of Columbine High School shooter Eric Harris in 1999.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered flags at government offices in the state to half staff and to remain there until sunset on Sunday.
“This senseless tragedy has shaken our entire state to its core,” she said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
Perry High School senior Ava Augustus told The Associated Press she heard three shots while waiting for a counselor in a school office Thursday morning. She and others barricaded the door and waited.
“And then we hear ‘He’s down. You can go out,’” Augustus said. ”And I run and you can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg.”
Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines said three victims were brought there by ambulance, and others were take to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center.
Vigils were planned for Thursday evening at a park and a church. The high school said it would be closed Friday and was making counseling services available to students, staff, and others in the community.
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[Featured image: Police respond to Perry High School/AP Photo/Andrew Harnik Inset: Suspect Dylan Butler’s high school yearbook picture/Des Moines Register]
