A 17-year-old student of Iowa’s Perry High School has been identified as the shooter who killed a sixth-grader and wounded five people in a Thursday shooting before killing himself.
Police say Dylan Butler, of the Des Moines suburb of Perry, was armed with a pump-action shotgun, a handgun and what they called a rudimentary IED (improvised explosive device), according to the Des Moines Register.
Shortly before the shooting began, Butler had posted a selfie on TikTok with a caption reading “now we wait.” according to the Des Moines Register.
The post included the song “Stray Bullet” by KMDFM. Of note, the song was found on the website of one of the shooters in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.
Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger has been listed as among the wounded.
Because Butler’s TikTok account and other social media sites have been taken down, many details of his past and attitudes remain uncertain, as does a motive for the incident.
However, what was allegedly found was disturbing, according to several social media reports.
In a post on X, conservative commentator Colin Rugg wrote that “Butler was reportedly an LGBTQ student who identified with the pronouns ‘he/they’ and ‘gender fluid.’ Butler appeared to interact with transgender accounts on Reddit & other LGBTQ accounts.”
NEW: Officials have identified 17-year-old Dylan Butler as the student who carried out the shooting at Perry High School in Iowa.
Butler was reportedly an LGBTQ student who identified with the pronouns ‘he/they’ and ‘gender fluid.’
Butler appeared to interact with transgender… pic.twitter.com/CtMQcPOpix
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 4, 2024
The X account End Wokeness alleged that Butler used “He/they pronouns with female avatars on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. He kiIIed a 6th grader, injured 5, and also planted an IED in the school. We need to have a national conversation about the radicalization of LGBTQ youth.”
Dylan Butler is the mass shooter in Perry.
He/they pronouns with female avatars on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
He kiIIed a 6th grader, injured 5, and also planted an IED in the school.
We need to have a national conversation about the radicalization of LGBTQ youth. pic.twitter.com/CnuO4yHn9e
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 4, 2024
On her X account, journalist Sarah Fields wrote, “Confused, ‘gender fluid’ Dylan Butler injured three people including the principal before turning the gun on himself. I will make a bet that he was also under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting.”
Confused, “gender fluid” Dylan Butler injured three people including the principal before turning the gun on himself.
I will make a bet that he was also under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting. These photos are from his now scrubbed TikTok account. pic.twitter.com/llUiDtGXAT
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) January 4, 2024
Yesenia Roeder Hall and Khamya Hall, 17-year-old sisters, said Butler was bullied, according to the Associated Press.
They said he had been bullied since elementary school, but the situation grew worse after a younger sister was also bullied. They said Butler’s parents had tried to get the school to act, something they said was the last straw for Butler.
“He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment,” Roeder Hall said. “Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.”
After police responded at about 7:40 a.m., on the day the school returned from its winter break, they found “what appeared to be the shooter with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Register reported.
An IED Butler left behind was disposed of.
Mortvedt said Butler’s many social media posts “in and around the time of the shooting” are part of the investigation.
Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said disturbing social media posts should trigger a response.
“Report it. Let authorities know,” Dinkla said. “If you see something, say something. That’s always a good lesson I think everybody should always go by. You never know when it might affect or change somebody’s life or save somebody’s life.”
The gunshots provoked a mad dash for safety at the school, according to the Daily Mail.
Senior Rachael Kares, 18- said she was finishing jazz band practice when four shots were heard.
“We all just jumped, My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran,” she said.
Kares said as she ran, she could hear voices yelling, “Get out! Get out!.”
Senior Ava Augustus described what she saw as she ran.
“You can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg,” she said.
