Injured principal tried to protect students
Police now say 7 hurt in attack by gunman, 17, who then took own life
PERRY, Iowa — An Iowa principal critically injured in a school shooting put himself at extra risk by trying to protect students from the teenage shooter, state authorities said Friday.
Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger and six other staffers and students were injured in the Thursday morning shooting that left one sixth-grade student dead. The 17-year-old student who opened fire also died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
The state Department of Public Safety said Marburger, who is being treated in a Des Moines hospital, “acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students.”
A day after the shooting, the small community of Perry was somber. Yellow crime tape still lined the campus Perry High School shares with the town’s middle school, flowers and stuffed toys had cropped up in memorials, and classes across the district were canceled Friday in favor of counseling.
The shooting happened just after 7:30 a.m. Thursday when the student opened fire, forcing people to hunker down in classrooms and offices shortly before classes were set to begin on the first day back after winter break.
The news seven students and staff suffered “wounds or injuries of varying degree” during the shooting was two more
than authorities said at a news conference Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear if all seven were shot, and officials did not immediately respond to inquiries seeking clarity.
The suspect, identified as Dylan Butler, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official said.
In a Facebook post later Thursday, the principal’s daughter said he was in “surgery all day, and is currently stable.”
Claire Marburger called her father a “gentle giant” who would want more attention on the other victims and their families and less on himself.
Authorities said Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Mitch Mortvedt, the state investigation division’s assistant director, said during a news conference authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device and rendered it harmless.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said federal and state investigators were interviewing Butler’s friends and analyzing Butler’s social media profiles, including posts on TikTok and Reddit. However, authorities have provided no information about a possible motive in the shooting.
Two friends and their mother
who spoke with The Associated Press said Butler was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.
Sisters Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, said that Butler was bullied relentlessly since elementary school, but it escalated recently when his younger sister started getting picked on, too.
“He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment,” Yesenia Roeder Hall said. “Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.”
Rachael Kares, an 18-yearold senior, who fled jazz band rehearsal when she heard gunshots Thursday morning, said she believes Marburger would have addressed any bullying that was reported to him.
“Any instances that happened toward Dylan were resolved because my principal is an amazing man who was on top of it all,” Kares said.
She added she and her family knew Marburger well — her older sisters grew up with his daughters, and his wife was one of Kares’ teachers when she was younger.
Perry has about 8,000 residents and is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, on the edge of the state capital’s metropolitan area.
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.
Mass shootings across the U.S. have long brought calls for stricter gun laws from gun safety advocates, and Thursday’s did within hours. But the idea has been a nonstarter for many Republicans, particularly in rural, GOP-leaning states like Iowa, which will hold its first-inthe-nation presidential caucuses Jan. 15.
Iowa does not require a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a firearm in public, but it does mandate a background check for anyone buying a handgun without a permit.
Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway when he heard shots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father.
Kevin Shelley, who drives a garbage truck, told his boss he had to run. “It was the most scared I’ve been in my entire life,” he said.
He later posted a photo on Facebook of his son being treated at Methodist Medical Center and said the boy was feeling fine.
“I am still shaking,” he added, “and tho I dont show it I’m not OK.”