OAN's Taylor Tinsley
3:26 PM – Thursday, January 4, 2024
A shooting at a high school in Iowa leaves one student dead and five others injured.
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Police responded to a report of a shooting at Perry High School Thursday morning.
Officials said gunshots rang out before classes officially began. Only a few students and faculty members were in the building at the time of the shooting.
Officers arrived on scene within 10 minutes and quickly located multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds.
The shooter was identified as 17-year-old student Dylan Butler.
The suspect was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was also in possession of a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun, said Mitch Maltvedt, deputy chief of the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
A sixth-grader at Perry Junior High School, which is adjacent to the high school, was killed.
Four other students and a school administrator were injured and taken to the hospital. One of them is reported to be in critical condition.
Eva Augustus, a high school senior, said she was hiding in the counselor's room when she heard the gunshots.
“Then I heard, 'He's down.' You can leave,” Augustus said through tears. “And as I ran, I saw glass everywhere, and there was blood on the floor. When I went to the car, a girl who had been shot in the leg was being taken out of the auditorium.”
While searching the building, officers also discovered an improvised explosive device, which the State Fire Marshal and ATF made safe.
A TikTok allegedly posted by the gunman before the incident circulated online, but the account has since been deleted and police are in the process of authenticating the video.
The White House is also tracking the incident.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made sure to tout the Biden administration's previous efforts to take action against gun-related violence.
She stressed that it is now up to Congress.
“We're only four days into the new year, and we're already facing another horrific school shooting,” Jean-Pierre said. “Congress must act to enact universal background checks, ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe firearm storage and immunity for the firearms industry, and pass a national red flag law.”
All classes at Perry's school were canceled Friday as police continue to investigate.
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