A 17-year-old gunman killed a sixth grade student and wounded five other people Thursday morning at Perry High School near Des Moines, Iowa, authorities said.
The five people wounded include four students and one school administrator, officials said. The school’s principal, Dan Marburger, was among the injured, according to officials in another school district where Marburger was an alumnus.
The attack was one of at least four mass shootings that have unfolded in the United States in 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive. And it marks the second US shooting on school property in 2024, according to a CNN analysis.
The shooter, who was a student at the high school, was Dylan Butler, according to Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Investigation. A law enforcement official told CNN the shooter is dead.
Officers responded to the shooting within minutes and found several people at the high school suffering gunshot wounds, and then found the gunman with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mortvedt said during a Thursday news conference.
An improvised explosive device was also found during a search of the school and it was rendered safe by authorities.
The gunman was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small caliber handgun, and had also made a number of social media posts around the time of the shooting, said Mortvedt, who did not offer more details on the contents of those posts.
Source: CNN