Iowa School Shooter, Weary Of Bullying, Kills One And Injures 5

A shooting incident took place on the campus of an Iowa high school where a 17-year-old had opened fire just minutes before classes resumed after the winter breaker. In the shooting in the Midwestern US state, one person was killed and five others, including the school principal, were injured.

Dylan Butler, the shooter, walked into Perry High School at around 7:30 am with a handgun and a shotgun. Students barricaded in offices, ducked into classrooms, and fled in panic as he started firing. After killing a student and injuring 5, the gun was turned on himself.

According to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Mitch Mortvedt, the victim who died was in sixth grade, meaning aged 11 or 12, and was likely in the high school for a breakfast program. Further, he added, among those injured by the 17-year-old shooter were four other students and a school administrator.

According to AFP reports, an improvised explosive device was found in the school, which responding authorities disabled. "Officers immediately attempted to locate the source of the threat and quickly found what appeared to be the shooter with a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Mortvedt told reporters, without confirming media reports that the shooter was dead.

Was Butler being bullied?

A TikTok video from the school bathroom had been posted by Butler, a senior at the school, just before he went on a rampage. The post was captioned "Now we wait," and the song 'Stray Bullet' played in the background. The song, by the German rock band KMFDM, features lyrics like "I'm your nightmare coming true, I am your worst enemy," and "Stray bullet, from the barrel of love."

Several other photos of Butler posing with firearms were found by investigators. An improvised explosive device was found on his body, leading the police to suspect that he planned to kill many more. A motive for the shooting is yet to be provided by the police. Two of his friends told The Associated Press that he was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.

They mentioned that he was hurting and got tired of the bullying and harassment. While acknowledging that shooting up the school was not a smart idea, they emphasized the toll that bullying had taken on him. Gun violence is common in the United States, a country with more firearms than people, and efforts to clamp down on their spread face stiff political resistance, reported AFP.

The United States has already recorded three mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nongovernmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed. The Perry shooting occurred less than two weeks before the Iowa caucus, the country's first contest kicking off the primary season for the 2024 presidential election.