The suspected Iowa school shooter who injured three people, including the principal, before turning the gun on himself has been identified as a high school graduate.
Dylan Butler, a senior at Perry High School, was named by local news outlet WHO 13 as the suspected shooter. Police have not confirmed the identification.
One of the three injured was school principal Dan Marburger, who was hospitalized and is currently undergoing surgery for his gunshot wounds.
The other two injured were reportedly students.
Hours before the shooting occurred at 7:37 a.m., Butler posted a TikTok in which he appeared to be posing in the school bathroom with the caption: “Now we wait.”
The senior grimaced as a blue duffel bag lay on the floor of the stall.
Dylan Butler, a senior at Perry High School, was named as the suspected shooter by local news outlet WHO 13. Hours before the shooting occurred at 7:37 a.m., Butler posted a TikTok of himself seemingly posing in the school bathroom, with the caption: “Now we wait”
In December, just weeks before the shooting, Butler posted another video on the same social media account in which he sat on children's playground equipment with a friend and pretended to be involved in a shootout with sticks. He was named by WHO 13, a local news outlet
Police officers work the scene of a shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa
Butler posted the TikTok selfie with the song “Stray Bullet” playing in the background.
In December, just weeks before the shooting, Butler posted another video on the same social media account in which he sat on children's playground equipment with a friend and pretended to be involved in a shootout with sticks.
Butler is “shot” by the stick and falls down the children’s slide.
Hundreds of rescue workers were on the scene Thursday morning – 25 miles northwest of Des Moines. At 7:37 a.m. ambulances, police units, rescue aircraft and firefighters were called to the school.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Office confirmed the shooting, which occurred on the first day of class. The FBI Omaha Des Moines was on scene, as was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive.
County Sheriff Adam Infante said at an 11 a.m. news conference that police officers arrived at the high school seven minutes after the initial call.
First responders found “multiple gunshot victims” at the school, but Infante said they were still working to confirm the number of victims. He did not confirm whether anyone had died.
WHO 13 and AP said the shooter is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Perry High School is on lockdown after a shooting was reported just after 7:30 this morning
Adam Infante said there were few people in the building at the time of the shooting because the school day had not yet started.
Infante said there is no further threat to the community. They have identified the shooter but have not confirmed whether he is alive or deceased.
The sheriff said: “The community is safe.” “We are now working backwards to see what happened.”
Today is the first day back from winter break for the 1,785 students studying in the Perry Community School District.
The number of possible injuries and victims has not yet been confirmed by police, but ABC reports that one person was killed in the shooting.
Crying parents made their way to the McCreary Community Building to be reunited with their children after this morning's shooting.
Carlos, a student at Perry High School, told WHO 13 that he and his friends initially thought the “loud banging noises” were part of a prank – before a teacher started yelling at the students, “Go, go, go.”
He said: “I heard a few bangs, they weren't loud.” We saw a lot of people running away. We thought it was a prank or something. “We didn’t think it was real at first.”
Erica Jolliff said her daughter, a ninth-grader, reported being rushed off school grounds at 7:45 a.m.
An hour later, Jolliff was still desperately searching for her son Amir, a sixth-grader.
“I just want to know he’s safe and doing well,” Jolliff said. “You won’t tell me anything.”
Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway waiting for the first day of school to start after recess when he heard gunshots and ran into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley.
The teen was patrolled twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7:36 a.m.
Kevin Shelley, who drives a garbage truck, told his boss he had to escape. “It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my entire life,” he said.
Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, was finishing jazz band practice when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four shots fired apart.
“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, 'Run!' So we ran.”
Kares and many others from the school were running past the soccer field when she heard people screaming, 'Get out! Get out!'
She said she heard more gunshots as she ran, but didn't know how many. She was more worried about getting home to her three-year-old son.
“At that moment I didn’t care about anything except getting out because I had to go home with my son,” she said.
Ava Augustus, a senior at Perry High School, burst into tears as she remembered what she saw this morning.
She was in a counselor's office and said she saw blood everywhere, glass on the floor, and she watched as a girl was taken out of the auditorium with gunshot wounds in her leg.
She said: “I'm running and you see glass everywhere, blood on the ground.” “I get to my car and they're pulling a girl out of the audience who's been shot in the leg.”
A sign will be projected at the scene informing parents what to do when they arrive at school
Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante confirmed at an 11 a.m. news conference that police arrived at the high school seven minutes after the initial call
Perry Elementary School and Perry Middle School – which are near the high school – were evacuated and the buildings were cleared at 8:32 a.m.
There is no active threat in this environment. The focus of the investigation is the high school, which was evacuated by a team of officers at 8:27 a.m.
Multiple victims were transported to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, a hospital spokesperson confirmed.
Two gunshot victims are being treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center.
Shortly after 9:30 a.m. local time, police issued a warning for people living in Woodward-Granger, a nearby community – but it was soon lifted.