A gunman opened fire inside a rural Iowa high school on the first day back from winter break Thursday morning, shooting “multiple” people before reportedly turning the gun on himself.
The principal of Perry High School, 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, was reportedly among what police said were “multiple shooting victims” when the mass shooting happened at 7:47 a.m.
The rampage occurred before the opening bell, when “very few students and faculty” were in the building, “which contributed to the good outcome in that sense,” Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a late-morning news conference.
An active shooter was reported at Perry High School in Iowa early Thursday. AP Heavily armed law enforcement swarmed Perry High School, about 40 miles from Des Moines. AP Parents and students reunite after several people were injured in a shooting at Perry High School in Iowa. AP Parents are seen picking up their children at the McCreary Community Building after the school shooting. AP
Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, said she was practicing with the school’s jazz band when she said she heard four separate gunshots.
“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”
The shooter, whom Infante said had been identified, was dead, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity.
Initial reports said first responders indicated on the police radio that the individual appeared suicidal.
Law enforcement officers at Perry High School after the shooting. REUTERS The first officers arrived seven minutes later and found “multiple gunshot victims,” Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said. Reuters
Infante declined to say exactly how many were shot or if there were any deaths or provide details about the shooter.
“There’s a bunch of speculative numbers floating around,” said Dirk Cavanaugh, Perry’s mayor. “We don’t have a confirmed number yet of who was involved.”
Two shooting victims were taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in the state capital, a spokeswoman for the UnityPoint Health network confirmed.
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“There is no more danger to the public [and] the community is safe,” said Infante.
The shooting happened on a campus shared by middle and high schools in the city of 8,000 people.
A first responder told dispatchers that there was a “male subject in the corridor – apparently self-inflicted” and that he was “shooting at another victim,” according to the Des Moines Register.
“The subject who came down is dead,” added the responder.
Kevin Shelley’s parents told the newspaper that his 15-year-old son, Zander Shelley, was in the school hallway when he was shot in the back and arm before taking cover in a classroom.
Two teachers told the paper that principal Dan Marburger was shot, something Shelley said Zander also saw.
“My son was inside, said he heard gunshots and immediately started running,” Shelley said. “They went into a classroom with a teacher who hid them and were safe.”
The injured sophomore was reunited with his father outside the school and is recovering at home, as many parents met with students outside the school for “tearful” reunions after the campus was cleared and evacuated, local stations reported.
Some students took shelter in an assisted living community near the school, Holly Killmer (not pictured), a teacher at Perry Middle School, reportedly said. AP The shooter is dead, law enforcement officials told CNN. Reuters
Shelley, a garbage truck driver, told her boss she had to run to school as soon as she got word of the shooting.
“It was the most I feared in my entire life,” he said.
Some high school children initially thought the rampage was a prank, according to WHO 13.
Roads around the school were blocked off as police carried out their investigation. AP
“I heard some bangs, it wasn’t loud. We saw a lot of people running out. We thought it was a prank or something. We didn’t think it was true at first,” said a student named Carlos.
“That’s when a group of police started coming and we knew it was serious and we were told to leave. One of our teachers started yelling at us — that’s when we knew it was serious — he was telling us to ‘go, go, go.’”
As Kares and his fellow students ran across the football field, he said, he heard additional gunshots in addition to people yelling, “Get out! Get out!”
“At that time I didn’t care about anything except going out because I had to go home with my son,” said the student.
Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante did not say how many people were shot. AP
One parent, Erica Jolliff, said her ninth-grade daughter was chased off school grounds at about 7:45 a.m.
The distraught mother said she was still trying to find her sixth-form son an hour later.
“I just want to know that he’s safe and OK,” Jolliff said. “They won’t tell me anything.”
Some students took shelter in an assisted living community near the school, Holly Killmer, a teacher at Perry Middle School, told the Register.
The district canceled classes for the rest of the day and Friday amid an ongoing investigation, according to officials. @AmandaMazariegos
“I was working at a school … and two of my three kids were supposed to be in high school at the time,” Killmer said.
“How do you wrap your mind around sending them back to that environment? How did they do it? It’s so traumatic.”
“We were told to go home, but we were also told we could get our car out which wasn’t true – we couldn’t get our car out,” Killmer said. “Seeing parents come in … when we (moved) in here — within minutes, parents were coming in here and screaming and crying and hugging their kids. It was more than I could handle.”
The district canceled classes for the rest of the day and Friday amid the ongoing investigation.
The incident comes as presidential candidates and national media descend on the Hawkeye State ahead of the Iowa caucuses, 11 days away.
Officials said the White House had been notified of the shooting and was monitoring the response.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
