UPDATED: Middle Schooler Killed, 5 Others Injured in Iowa School Shooting

Jennifer Bowers BahneyJan 4th, 2024, 11:15 am

In an afternoon press conference, Iowa police confirmed that a 6th grade middle-schooler was killed in Thursday’s school shooting. Five others were injured, including four students and one school administrator.

Police did not identify the victims.

Police said 17-year old Dylan Butler was armed with a pump action shotgun and a small caliber handgun when he launched his attack. They said they found Butler with a fatal self-inflected gunshot wound.

A rudimentary homemade bomb was found on scene that police were able to successfully disarm. Investigators said they’re reviewing Butler’s social media for clues as to motive.

Police on Thursday responded to an active shooter call at Perry High School in Iowa, and were on the scene within 7 minutes of the alert, which took place before classes began, according to Dallas Co. Sheriff Adam Infante.

Thursday was the first day back in classes after the school’s annual winter break.

“This happened at approximately 7:37 this morning,” he said at the presser. “School didn’t start yet, luckily, so there was very few students and faculty in the building, which I think contributed to a good outcome in that sense.”

Police said more details may be released later in the day after “notifications” have been made.

Following is a transcript of the morning press conference.

SHERIFF INFANTE: This morning at approximately 7:37 a.m.. We had an [emergency] radio activation at the high school, which indicated an active shooter situation.

Our officer first arrived within 7 minutes of that activation and located multiple gunshot victims. We’re still unclear exactly how many are injured or what the extent of those are, but we’re working on that right now. There is no further danger to the public. The community is safe. We’re just now working backwards, trying to figure out everything that happened and make notifications. There’ll be another update later on today wh– it’s still very early.

This happened at approximately 7:37 this morning. School didn’t start yet, luckily, so there was very few students and faculty in the building, which I think contributed to a good outcome in that sense. But we’ll have more information later on this afternoon. We will not be releasing any more information in the meantime. So please be patient with us so that we can talk with these victims and their families and try and figure out what happened. We won’t be answering any questions today either, for right now. We’ll let you know later on this afternoon, afternoon what time will be meeting back with you again. And we hope to provide more detail then.

REPORTER: Just just to be clear, you don’t have a number of people who were injured?

INFANTE: We’re still working on that.

REPORTER: Have you identified the shooter?

INFANTE: Yes.

REPORTER: What’s their current status? Are they alive or…?

INFANTE: We’ll get to that later on this afternoon.

REPORTER: Can you confirm that the shooter was a student at the school?

INFANTE: I can’t confirm that right now.

REPORTER: Can you confirm any deaths?

INFANTE: No. Not right now.