Multiple people injured in Perry, Iowa, school shooting

Multiple people were injured in an early morning shooting at an Iowa high school on Thursday, local authorities said.

The number of victims and the extent of their injuries were not immediately clear. Authorities said there was “no further danger to the public” at a press conference on Thursday morning. The Associated Press, citing an unnamed law enforcement official, reported that the suspect had died of what investigators believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The first reports of an active shooter at the Perry Middle School & High School campus arrived at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, police said. Thursday was the first day back in school for students following the holiday break.

“Our officer first arrived within seven minutes of that activation, and located multiple gunshot victims,” Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante told reporters. “We’re still unclear exactly how many are injured or what the extent of those are, but we’re working on that right now.

“There is no further danger to the public,” Infante added. “The community is safe. We’re just now working backwards, trying to figure out everything that happened and make notifications.”

Authorities have identified the suspected shooter, Infante said, but he declined to comment on their status. Classes had not yet started for the day, he said, so there were “very few students and faculty in the building.”

Perry, Iowa, a rural Des Moines exurb of about 8,000 people, is located in the state’s center. The high school, housed at the same address as the town’s middle school, is part of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District.

The shooting occurred as attention has turned to Iowa in advance of this month’s caucuses for the 2024 presidential election. The high school was slated to serve as a gathering site for the Jan. 15 Republican caucuses.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy held a “commit to caucus” event Thursday morning with voters in Perry. Intended to be a traditional campaign event to rally support, the event ended up becoming a more informal conversation in which Ramaswamy and attendees prayed and discussed the shooting and other issues.

Ramaswamy has blamed mass shootings on a “mental health epidemic” and campaigned at gun ranges as part of his bid for president. At the event Thursday, he blasted “the false hubris” associated with “knee-jerk” calls for gun control legislation in the wake of mass shootings.

“The temptation is just pass some law, paper it over and say we did something in response to this,” Ramaswamy said. “Sweeping under this real ailment at the heart and soul of our nation and our culture that has spread to the entire next generation and to the unit of the family, the loss of purpose ... that's a false hubris. That’s a belief almost that we are God.”

Other Republican presidential hopefuls did not immediately address the shooting but have voiced similar concerns in the past with gun control legislation. They have also backed efforts to repeal gun safety laws and pledged support for gun rights if elected president.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, has called for hardening school security and promised to enact federal tax credits to reimburse teachers for the cost of firearms.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has staked his hopes on a strong performance in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus, has sought to further loosen his state’s laws on gun ownership. In April, DeSantis signed a bill allowing gun owners to carry firearms without a state permit. DeSantis has also voiced skepticism about Florida’s red flag law, passed in the aftermath of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, that allows courts to remove firearms from people who could be a risk to themselves or others.

In response to an October mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, DeSantis said he’d support greater institutionalization for people with mental health issues and pledged he would veto gun control measures if elected president.

Other Republican candidates, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, have also backed calls for armed guards in schools.