“Multiple gunshot victims” were reported after a shooting Thursday morning at Perry High School in Iowa, according to local law enforcement officials, but details on how many and how bad the injuries remained unclear.
People leave the McCreary Community Building after being reunited following a shooting at Perry High ... [+]
The shooting was reported at 7:37 a.m. CT, before school started, which likely mitigated the impact of the shooting due to the scarcer number of students and faculty on site, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a press conference Thursday.
Police responded within seven minutes and located multiple gunshot victims at the scene, but Infante said officials were still unsure of how many were injured and the extent of the injuries.
In a Facebook post, Dallas County officials confirmed that the building was secured just after 10 a.m. ET, and Infante reiterated later in the morning that there was “no further danger to the public.”
Infante said that the shooter was known, but would not comment further on the shooter’s identity or status.
Officials at the press conference declined to answer further questions and promised another update later in the day.
Following the press conference, multiple media outlets, including CNN and NBC reported that the shooter is dead, citing law enforcement familiar with the situation.
“We’re just now working backwards trying to figure out everything that happened and make notifications,” Infante told reporters.
The school is part of the Perry Community School District, a small district of roughly 1800 students across three schools, located about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines. It was the first day of the new semester, according to the district calendar.
- That’s the number of mass shootings that have already been counted just days into 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It’s unclear if the Perry shooting would qualify, given the unknown number of victims.
Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was in Perry this morning for a campaign event. As news broke of the shooting, he posted on X: “Pray for the community in Perry, Iowa.”
Perry