Iowa school shooting wounds multiple folks, suspect is dead

Police reply to Perry High School in Perry, Iowa., Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. Police say there was a shooting on the metropolis’s excessive school. Photo- AP

Several folks had been wounded on Thursday morning in a shooting at an Iowa excessive school on the primary day of courses after the vacation break, officers mentioned.

Two gunshot victims had been taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center within the state capital of Des Moines, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Perry, a group of about 8,000 folks.

Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante mentioned the shooting occurred earlier than school was set to start out, so there have been few college students and college in Perry High School.

The suspect within the shooting has died of what investigators imagine is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a legislation enforcement official advised The Associated Press. The official was not licensed to publicly talk about particulars of the investigation and spoke to The AP on situation of anonymity.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who based a biotechnology firm, had been scheduled to carry a rally in Perry however modified the occasion to an in-person prayer after reviews of the shooting, a marketing campaign spokesperson mentioned.

The shooting occurred within the backdrop of the Iowa caucuses and never removed from the place Republican presidential candidates had been campaigning.

An lively shooter was reported at 7:37 a.m. Thursday morning and officers arrived seven minutes later, Infante mentioned. He added throughout a information convention that officers situated multiple folks with accidents, however couldn’t affirm what number of there have been or their circumstances. A spokeperson for UnityPoint Health, which operates the Des Moines hospital, confirmed the 2 gunshot victims arriving there.

An monumental variety of emergency automobiles surrounded the constructing that homes each the city’s center school and excessive school.

Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway ready for the school day to start out when he heard gunshots and dashed right into a classroom, in keeping with his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid within the classroom earlier than texting his father at 7:36 a.m.

Kevin Shelley, who drives a rubbish truck, advised his boss he needed to run. “It was the most scared I’ve been in my entire life,” he mentioned.

Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, was wrapping up jazz band follow when she and her bandmates heard what she described as 4 gunshots, spaced aside.

“We all just jumped,” Kares mentioned. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”

Kares and plenty of others from the school ran out previous the soccer discipline, as she heard folks yelling, “Get out! Get out!” She mentioned she heard extra pictures as she ran, however didn’t know what number of. She was extra involved about getting residence to her 3-year-old son.

“At that moment I didn’t care about anything except getting out because I had to get home with my son,” she mentioned.

FBI brokers from the Omaha-Des Moines workplace had been on scene to assist with the investigation led by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

“There are a bunch of speculative numbers floating around,” mentioned Dirk Cavanaugh, Perry’s mayor. “We have no confirmed numbers of who was involved yet.”

Erica Jolliff mentioned that her daughter, a ninth grader, reported getting rushed from the school grounds at 7:45 am. Distraught, Jolliff was nonetheless on the lookout for her son Amir, a sixth grader, one hour later.

“I just want to know that he’s safe and OK,” Jolliff mentioned. “They won’t tell me nothing.”

Jasmine Augustine, 18, was on the excessive school shortly after every little thing occurred Thursday morning. She mentioned she was dropping off a pal on the excessive school and his brother, who goes to the city’s elementary school a couple of mile (1.61 kilometers) away.

“I was at Casey’s convenience store and saw one car speed by. I thought it was just someone getting pulled over,” she mentioned.

Augustine mentioned that when she pulled in on the excessive school, somebody advised her there was an lively shooter “and then we hurried up and left.”

“After that, there’s just tons and tons and tons of cops who came,” mentioned Augustine, whose sister attends the excessive school however wasn’t close to what occurred. Jasmine and her dad picked up her sister from the armory afterward.

The excessive school is a part of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District. The city of Perry is extra various than Iowa as an entire, with census figures displaying that 31% of the residents are Hispanic, in comparison with lower than 7% for the state. Those figures additionally present that just about 19% of the city’s residents had been born exterior the U.S.

The shooting occurred within the backdrop of the Iowa caucuses and never removed from the place Republican candidates had been campaigning.

Phone messages left with the Perry School Board’s president and vp, and an electronic mail message left with Superintendent Clark Wicks, weren’t instantly returned.

With inputs from businesses.