School shooting in Perry, Iowa kills sixth-grade student, injures five others
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Law enforcement officials respond to a school shooting at the Perry Middle School and High School complex. Students were returning to classes Thursday following the holiday break. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
A 17-year-old high school student in Perry, Iowa, shot and killed a middle school student and injured five other individuals before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Thursday, law enforcement say.
State of play: Around 7:37am, local police were notified of an active shooter at Perry High School, about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, just before the start of the school day. Officers arrived in seven minutes, said Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation.
Details: Law enforcement found six victims, including five students and Perry High School principal Dan Marburger, the Register reports.
- Mortvedt shared that one victim was in critical, but non-life threatening condition, while the rest were stable.
- During officers' search of the high school, they also found a "rudimentary" improvised explosive device, which they disabled.
Zoom in: The incident occurred on what would have been students' first day of classes following winter break.
- Middle school students were at the high school attending early morning basketball practice and eating breakfast when the incident unfolded.
- The middle and high schools are located in the same complex.
The suspect, who has been identified, was a student at Perry High School. He was found dead by law enforcement with a pump-action shotgun and small-caliber handgun, Mortvedt said.
- He had made "a number of social media posts" around the time of the shooting, Mortvedt said.
- Before the shooting, the suspect posted a picture of himself on TikTok inside a bathroom stall with a duffle bag and the caption "now we wait," the Register reports.
- It was accompanied with the song, "Stray Bullet" by rock group KMFDM, which was infamously used on the website of Eric Harris, one of the shooters of the Columbine High School massacre, the Register reports.
Flashback: In early January 2023, an 18-year-old student attending a Des Moines alternative school program downtown shot and killed two other students.
- In 2022, a shooting outside East High School in Des Moines killed one teenager and injured two others.
Zoom in: Iowa has invested more money into school safety, including $100 million in federal funding to provide active shooter training and conduct vulnerability assessments in 2022 and improved ways to monitor and report threats, the Register reports.
- The state also eased its gun laws, allowing people to buy and carry handguns without a permit in 2021.
What they're saying: The shooting occurred just 11 days before the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 15, as a swarm of national media outlets and presidential candidates give their final push throughout the state.
- GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had a prescheduled event in Perry at 9am at which he called the shooting a sign of "sickness" in the country, AP reports.
- Meanwhile, presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told the Register that controlling gun violence is a local issue.
The big picture: Perry is located in Dallas County. Its population is roughly 8,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
- The small community is known for its growing Latino community, which makes up about 30% of the city's population.
What's next: Perry schools will be closed Jan. 5.