Pupil killed and five people injured in shooting at Iowa high school

A sixth-grade student was killed and five people injured when a 17-year-old opened fire in a small-town high school in Iowa on Thursday.

The suspect was identified as Dylan Butler, a student at Perry High School, officials said at a news briefing. He was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound by responding officers.

Police also discovered an improvised explosive device when searching the high school, Mitch Mortvedt, an assistant director with the state Department of Criminal Investigation, told reporters.

Members of the state fire marshal’s office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rendered the device safe.

The town of Perry, which has about 8,000 residents, lies about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, the capital city of the Midwestern state.

The attack took place just after 7.30 am (1.30pm GMT), before most students and faculty had entered the building.

Butler was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a handgun, Mr Mortvedt said.

The 17-year-old made several social media posts around the time of the shooting, Mr Mortvedt added, without offering specific details. The shooter’s motive was under investigation, he said.

Four of the wounded victims are students, and the fifth is a school administrator, he added, declining to release any names.

Another school district, Easton Valley, issued a statement saying it had received word that Dan Marburger, the high school principal, was the administrator shot in the attack.

One victim was in critical condition but did not appear to be facing life-threatening injuries, Mr Mortvedt said, while the other four were in stable condition.

“This senseless tragedy has shaken our entire state to the core, and I want this community to know that every Iowan stands with you” Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said at the news briefing.

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FBI agents from the Omaha-Des Moines office were assisting in the investigation, and US Attorney General Merrick Garland was briefed on the shooting, a Justice Department spokesperson said.

“We cannot allow these tragedies to continue,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “We have to do something.”

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had been scheduled to hold a rally in Perry but changed the event to an in-person prayer meeting after reports of the shooting, a campaign spokesperson said.

Iowa will hold the first statewide contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in 11 days.

“Pray for the community in Perry, Iowa this morning.” Mr Ramaswamy said on the X social media platform.

High school senior Ava Augustus said she was in a counsellor’s office when she heard three shots.

She and other people barricaded the door, preparing to throw things if necessary, as the window was too small for an escape.

“And then we hear ‘He’s down. You can go out’,” Ms 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.”

A post on the school’s Facebook page said it would be closed on Friday, with counselling services planned at the public library on Friday and Saturday.

Mass shootings across the US have long brought calls for stricter gun laws from gun safety advocates.

There were 346 incidents in which a gun was brandished or fired at school or a bullet hit school property in 2023, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

This represented the highest of any year in the website’s data – which goes back to 1966 – and the third record-setting year in a row.

As of July 2021, Iowa does not require a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a firearm in public, though it mandates a background check for a person buying a handgun without a permit.

An active gunman at the school was reported at 7.37am and officers arrived seven minutes later, Dallas County sheriff Adam Infante said. Emergency vehicles surrounded the school.

Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley.

He was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7.36am.

Rachael Kares, 18, was finishing jazz band practice when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, spaced apart.

“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”

Additional reporting by Reuters and AP