OAN’s Taylor Tinsley
3:26 PM – Thursday, January 4, 2024
A shooting at a Iowa high school has led to the death of one student and left five others wounded.
Police responded to reports of an active shooter at Perry High School on Thursday morning.
Authorities said gunshots rang out before classes officially began. At the time the shooting occurred, only a few students and faculty were inside the building.
Officers were on the scene in less than 10 minutes and quickly located multiple victims with gunshot wounds.
The shooter has been identified as 17-year-old student Dylan Butler.
Assistant Director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Mitch Mortvedt, said the suspect was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was also armed with a pump-action shotgun and small-caliber handgun.
A sixth grade student from Perry Middle School, which is connected to the high school, was killed.
Four other students and a school administrator were wounded and transported to the hospital. One of those individuals are reported to be in critical condition.
A senior at the high school, Ava Augustus, said she was hiding in the counselors office when she heard gunfire.
“And then we hear ‘He’s down. You can go out,’” Augustus said through tears. “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.”
While searching the building, officers also located an improvised explosive device, which the state fire marshal and ATF rendered safe.
An alleged TikTok posted by the shooter prior to the incident has been circulating online, but the account has since been taken down and police are working to authenticate the video.
Butler reportedly had an LGBTQ pride flag in his social media bio.
The White House is also tracking the incident.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made sure to tout the Biden Administration’s past efforts to take action against gun-related violence.
She emphasized that it’s now up to Congress.
“It’s only the fourth day in the year, in the new year, and we are already faced with yet another horrific school shooting,” Jean-Pierre said. “Congress must act to enact universal background checks, ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms and the gun industry’s immunity from liability and pass a national red flag law.”
All classes at Perry schools have been canceled for Friday as police continue their investigation.
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