Law enforcement has confirmed that the 17-year-old shooter at Perry High School is dead.
There is at least one deceased victim — a sixth grader from Perry Middle School. Another five people were wounded in the shooting and are being treated at area hospitals. Four of the injured victims are students and the fifth was identified as a school administrator by officials. The Daily Mail has reported the adult victim is the school’s principal Dan Marburger, but law enforcement has not confirmed.
At a press conference in the afternoon of Jan. 4, Chief Eric Vaughn thanked the officers from the Dallas County Police Department for their quick response to the incident as well as other agencies for their support.
“It is truly amazing to see first responders work together in these crisis situations,” he said.
Mitch Mortvedt, the assistant director with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, delivered a timeline of the day’s events, noting that law enforcement responded within minutes of being notified of the shooting and immediately entered the school.
He also told the press that police found the person they believed to be the shooter shortly after entering the school. The suspect was dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
First responders then conducted a search of the school and located an “improvised explosive device” which was “rendered … safe.” No additional threats were identified.
The perpetrator was identified by local news sources as Dylan Butler, a senior at the school. Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a small caliber handgun.
Mortvedt noted that the shooter made a number of social media posts “in and around the time of the shooting.”
“Law enforcement is working to secure those pieces of evidence,” said Mortvedt. “All evidence thus far suggests that Bulter acted alone.”
Earlier reports identified Bulter as the shooter and included a screenshot of a video from TikTok wherein the teenager posed next to a blue bag in a bathroom, with the word “now we wait” near his face. Another screenshot of his profile shows Butler included a Pride flag emoji.
Mortvedt told reporters the investigation into Bulter’s motive is ongoing but there was no preliminary evidence to suggest his attack was racially motivated.
Roughly 100 officers from local, state, and federal agencies responded to the scene of the shooting within an hour of the initial call. When asked about the school safety for the rest of the year, Mortvedt said it was obvious that “the training… at the school level… with faculty and the students – everybody reacted absolutely appropriately as they should as well as law enforcement as they were entering the building.”
Approximately 8,000 people live in Perry.
“It is home to a large pork-processing plant, and low-slung, single story homes spread among trees now shorn of their leaves by winter,” reports AP News. “The high school and middle school are connected, sitting on the east edge of town.”
