Iowa school shooting wounds multiple people; suspect dead

Police in Iowa said numerous people were wounded during a high school shooting Thursday in Perry.

Law enforcement officials told multiple outlets that the suspect is dead from what looks like a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante didn’t confirm the shooter is dead or speak about the exact number of victims and severity of their injuries.

He did say the shooter was identified and there was no longer a threat to the town of roughly 8,000 people.

“There is no further danger to the public. The community is safe,” Sheriff Infante said during a press briefing. “We’re just now working backward trying to figure out everything that happened.”

The sheriff said officers observed multiple gunshot victims minutes after the shooting was first reported around 7:35 a.m.

The officials said the shooter may have been a student.  

A spokesperson for UnityPoint Health told the Des Moines Register that two gunshot victims from Perry High School were rushed to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in the state’s capital, 40 miles away, after the shooting.

The gunfire created a chaotic scene around the only high school in the roughly 8,000-person town.

Kevin Shelley told The Associated Press that his 15-year-old son Zander was grazed twice by bullets while he was waiting for class to start.

Mr. Shelley said his son ducked into a nearby classroom and texted his dad what was happening. Mr. Shelley, a garbage truck driver, told his boss he had to go.

“It was the most scared I’ve been in my entire life,” he told the outlet.

Parent Erica Jolliff told AP that her ninth-grade daughter was being moved from school grounds at 7:45 a.m. Ms. Jolliff said she was still waiting to confirm that her sixth-grade son, Amir, also made it off campus. 

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

— This article is based in part on wire service reports.