Lowa school shooting kills one student, wounds five others: police
By TOI Desk Report
January 5, 2024
Update on : January 5, 2024
A student was killed and five people were injured as a 17-year-old opened fire at Perry High School in Iowa on Thursday morning before classes resumed on the first day after the winter break, report AP and The New York Times.
Of the injured, four were students and one was an administrator, said Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at a news conference on Thursday.
One of the injured victims was in critical condition, said the assistant director.
Easton Valley Community School District identified the administrator as Dan Marburger, the principal at Perry High School, where the shooting took place.
However, officials did not disclose the names of any other victims.
The gunman was identified as Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at the high school. However, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Mortvedt.
Law enforcement officials said the motive for the attack was not yet known. However, they believe Butler acted alone.
Two friends and their mother who spoke with AP said he [Butler] was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.
Authorities said the teen armed with a shotgun and a handgun unleashed terror at the school on the first day of classes in the new year as people hunkered down in classrooms, barricaded offices, and fled the barrage of bullets.
Mortvedt said the authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device and rendered it safe.
The suspect’s motive was being investigated, Mortvedt said, adding that authorities were looking into social media posts where he made around the time of the shooting.
A law enforcement official briefed that federal and state investigators were talking to Butler’s friends and analyzing his social media profiles, including posts on TikTok and Reddit.
The official said Butler posted a photo on TikTok inside the school bathroom shortly before Thursday’s shooting.
The official told AP on condition of anonymity that investigators have also found other photos in which Butler posted posing with firearms.
A hospital spokesperson said three bullet-hit victims were treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines while others were taken to a second hospital.
On Thursday evening, hundreds of people gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil at a park where students had been brought to reunite with their families after the shooting.
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