Multiple victims shot at high school in Perry, Iowa. The shooter is dead, law enforcement official says
Originally Published: 04 JAN 24 10:17 ET Updated: 04 JAN 24 12:09 ET By Andy Rose, Dakin Andone and Evan Perez, CNN
(CNN) — Multiple people were wounded in a shooting Thursday morning at Perry High School near Des Moines, an Iowa county sheriff said.
The shooter is dead, a law enforcement official told CNN. The number of victims and the extent of their injuries wasn’t immediately clear, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said.
LIVE UPDATES: Shooting at high school in Perry, Iowa
The sheriff declined to say whether anyone had been killed or answer questions.
“There is no further danger to the public,” Infante told reporters in a brief news conference outside the school, noting the shooter had been identified.
The attack erupted on the first scheduled day of classes of the new semester, according to the district, following a year in which more than 80 school shootings – more than in any year since CNN began keeping track in 2008 – were recorded.
Authorities in Perry, Iowa, responded within 7 minutes to a 7:37 a.m. call of an active shooter at the campus, Infante said. “There was very few students and faculty in the building,” he said, noting classes had not yet begun.
By late morning, “I think all the kids have been reunified,” he said, with parents and others who had rushed to the school upon hearing a shooting had unfolded.
Authorities plan to hold another news conference Thursday afternoon, the sheriff said. Meanwhile, investigators are speaking with victims and their families to learn what happened, he said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed their agents had responded to the high school, as did the Iowa State Patrol, Sgt. Alex Dinkla told CNN, and police vehicles from multiple cities.
“We are assisting the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, who is the lead investigative agency,” the FBI said in a statement.
The White House is aware of and tracking reports of the shooting, an official told CNN. Attorney General Merrick Garland has also been briefed, according to the US Department of Justice.
“Multiple law enforcement and medical staff are on site for a shooting at Perry High School,” according to an earlier post on the Dallas County Facebook page. “The site has been secured and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office will release more information as it becomes available.”
Classes at Perry High School have been canceled for the day, CNN affiliate KCCI reported.
Perry is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines and has a population of about 8,000, according to the US Census Bureau. The Perry Community School District — comprised of the high school, a middle school and an elementary school — serves about 1,800 students, its website says.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Betsy Klein and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
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