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Revision as of 22:45, 5 January 2024 by FormalDude (talk | contribs) (Remove "Colby": not mentioned in the article, don't see it covered in reliable sources.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 2024 school shooting in Iowa
| Perry High School shooting | |
|---|---|
| Part of mass shootings in the United States and school shootings in the United States | |
 
100m110yds 1 | |
| Location | Perry High School Perry, Iowa, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 41°50′23″N 94°04′50″W / 41.8398°N 94.08066°W / 41.8398; -94.08066 |
| Date | January 4, 2024; 11 months ago (2024-01-04) c. 7:37 a.m. CST |
| Attack type | School shooting, mass shooting, murder-suicide, pedicide |
| Weapon | |
| Deaths | 2 (including the perpetrator) |
| Injured | 5 |
| Perpetrator | Dylan Butler |
The Perry High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on January 4, 2024, at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at the high school, killed one other student and injured five others before committing suicide by gun. It was the first school shooting of 2024.
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.
Perpetrator
Police identified the shooter as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, a Perry resident and student of Perry High School. According to the Associated Press, Butler's friends and mother described him as being "a quiet person who had been bullied for years" and speculated that this "relentless" bullying could have been the motive behind the shooting. Butler's mother and sisters told the media that the "last straw" may have been school officials' failure to intervene when his younger sister began to be bullied as well.
As of January 5, 2024, authorities have not officially stated a motive for the shooting. 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". 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.
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. Principal Dan Marburger tried to approach Butler to make peace before being wounded, an action credited with allowing students to escape the area. At least one student reported the shooting to their parents at 7:36 a.m.
At 7:44 a.m., the first wave of first responders, including police officers, ambulances, and helicopters, arrived at the scene. 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. In a later sweep of the school, police found an improvised explosive device and disarmed it safely.
The middle school attached to the high school was cleared by 8:25 a.m., and the high school was evacuated by 8:27 a.m. A nearby elementary school was dismissed by 8:32 a.m. While some students ran to homes close to the campus after evacuating, others went to reunification centers such as the National Guard Armory and the Perry Lutheran Homes. The McCreary Community building was also utilized as a reunification site for parents and students who were evacuated off the campus. By 9:27 a.m. on January 4, the FBI and the Kansas City division of the ATF were on the scene.
Later in the day, a sixth-grade student at Perry Middle School was pronounced dead. Those injured included Principal Marburger and four students, one of whom was in critical condition. As of January 5, 2024, authorities have not yet released more information about the victims, and the method Butler used to acquire firearms underage is unknown and under investigation.
Reactions
A memorial was planned and held at a local park the same day of the shooting to share support and offer sympathy to the victims and others affected. A local Methodist church offered their building as a resting space for those impacted. At least one GoFundMe was created to help those affected, and a main blood providing center for the Dallas and Polk counties posted a request for additional blood to be donated in the aftermath of the shooting.
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. The daughter of one of the wounded victims called for people to "show grace" to the family of the shooter.
See also
- Columbine effect
- Gun violence in the United States
- List of mass shootings in the United States in 2024
- List of school shootings in the United States (2000–present)
References
- 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
- ^ Families recount terrifying moments from inside Perry High School during deadly shooting, KCCI, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
- Perry shooter identified as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, KCCI, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
- ^ 17-year-old Perry High School shooting suspect posted photo on TikTok before shooting, Des Moines Register, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
- ^ 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
- ^ "Multiple people shot at Iowa high school on the first day after winter break, officials say", NBC News, NBC News, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
- ^ 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.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ 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
- ^ "Dispatch recordings provide timeline of Iowa high school shooting", KETV, January 4, 2024
- ^ 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.
- "Dispatch recordings provide timeline of Perry High School shooting in Iowa". KCCI. January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
- Brustkern, Emma (January 5, 2024). "Perry High School shooting prompts questions about Iowa's gun laws". weareiowa.com. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
- ^ Iowa leaders, elected officials react to Perry High School shooting, KCCI, January 4, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2024
- Breen, Kerry (January 5, 2024). "Iowa school principal was shot trying to "distract" shooter so students could flee, his daughter says - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved January 5, 2024.