The principal of Perry High School in Iowa tried to distract the 17-year-old school shooter to help students escape, according to the principal’s daughter.
The Thursday morning shooting left one sixth grader dead and five others – including Principal Dan Marburger – injured. The shooter, identified as Dylan Butler, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Marburger’s daughter, Claire, said she was immediately concerned her father would be a victim due to his selflessness.
“As I heard of a gunman, I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harms [sic] way for the benefit of the kids and his staff,” Claire wrote in a late Thursday post on Facebook. “It is absolutely zero surprise to hear he tried to approach and talk Dylan down and distract him long enough for some students to get out of the cafeteria. That’s just Dad.”
She continued:Knowing Dad, Dad is devastated about what happened today, he would be devastated about Dylan, devastated about the victims, devastated for the community as every single community member is a victim to this tragedy, its things like this that he takes personally.. what more could he do, what did he not do that he could have… he’d be extremely saddened the trauma and negative memories that are associated with his building and school now for many.
Claire, who describes her father as “a gentle giant” and an “amazing person,” revealed that he is currently stable after being “in surgery all day.”
According to USA Today, Marburger has worked in the Perry district for about three decades. When he first began there in 1995, he told the Perry Chief, “I always knew I’d be a teacher.”
Students described the chaos and fear they experienced at the sound of gunshots on Thursday morning, just before school was scheduled to begin.
“We all just jumped,” said Rachael Kares, 18, per the New York Post. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”
Kares and other students ran past the football field as the sound of gunshots intermingled with shouts of “Get out! Get out!”
“I just heard a couple of bangs, not really gunshots,” sophomore Carlos Monzon told WHO 13. “They were not very loud. We saw a bunch of kids running and we asked what happened because we were kind of concerned. We thought it was just for band or something messing around.”
When someone told Monzon there was a shooting, he initially thought it might be a prank because “people like to prank about that stuff these days,” he said. “[Then] one of our teachers started screaming at us – that’s when we knew it was serious – he was telling us to ‘leave, leave, leave’.”
A candlelight vigil held in Perry’s Wiese Park Thursday night was attended by about 200 people, per The Perry News.
“I’m here and I know other pastors and people of faith are here to try to shine some light in the middle of this dark time in Iowa, in Perry, and to remind the people who are here who are suffering that they are not suffering alone,” said Rev. Melody Webb, who led the vigil with a half-dozen other local ministers.
Free counseling services will be available for the community at Perry Public Library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
“I think the community’s still in shock,” said Lydia Buckingham, a mental health professional on staff, per WHO 13.
