2024 Perry High School shooting

Perry High School and Perry Middle School are part of the Perry Community School District in Perry, Iowa. The two schools share a building and are connected by a hallway adjacent to the cafeteria, where the shooting occurred. The cafeteria hosts a breakfast program for all middle and high school students before school. Perpetrator Dylan Jesse Butler (October 11, 2006 – January 4, 2024), a Perry resident and student of Perry High School, was identified by police as the shooter. His two friends and their mother described Butler as a quiet, bullied person. His sisters and their mother said the bullying started in elementary school and escalated after his younger sister began being bullied as well. The investigation's report—released October 17 The report concluded that he acted alone without anyone knowingly providing support and was "driven by a desire to commit suicide with the hostile intent of taking others with him". An investigation determined that the shotgun used by Butler was taken without the owner's knowledge. A revolver was also found on Butler and was legally purchased by his father in 2020, but left unsecured in his home. Investigators said Butler left a note indicating he sought fame and intended to take his own life. Butler made social media posts before the shooting, including a TikTok post showing him in a Perry High School bathroom stall with a duffel bag, captioned with the text "now we wait". The post was accompanied by the KMFDM song "Stray Bullet", which had been used on the personal website of Eric Harris, one of the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre. ==Shooting==

Butler entered Perry High School at 7:12am through the main entrance, weapons concealed, before staying in a restroom for twenty minutes, where he concealed himself from surveillance, posted to social media, and started a livestream. As students of all grades (including those from the middle school) concluded band practice and had breakfast at 7:35am, Butler returned to the commons area and fired upon more than fifty students and staff present, critically injuring 6th-grader Ahmir Jolliff and wounding Principal Dan Marburger along with four other students. He then moved through the school, down hallways, into secured classrooms, and near an exit. There, Marburger confronted him, pleading Butler to stop shooting while allowing students to escape the area before Butler shot him again. Student Corey Hoffman, who helped other students escape by using his body as a shield, was shot 9 times and was placed in critical condition. In total, he fired twenty-three rounds from his pump-action shotgun (later identified as a Remington 870 of unknown origin). His revolver, unsecured in his home and brought to school, was never used. and a student's 911 call. The first officer entered at 7:38am, and Butler shot himself within the next minute, being pronounced dead by police at 7:40. In a later search of the school, police found a homemade bomb and disarmed it safely. More than 150 officers arrived at the school to find its occupants either evacuating or under shelter-in-place. By 9:27a.m., the FBI and the ATF were on the scene. and the McCreary Community building. Later in the day, eleven-year-old Ahmir Jolliff was pronounced dead having been shot three times. Ten days later, Principal Marburger died. and four students, one of whom was in critical condition. ==Reactions==

of Dan Marburger located in Violet Hill Cemetery, about 1.6 miles (2.5 kilometers) from Perry High School. A memorial was planned and held at a local park the same day of the shooting. Donald Trump also offered condolences, adding "It's just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it, we have to move forward". In a press briefing, the White House used the shooting to call for gun control. According to NBC News, right-leaning figures such as Libs of TikTok, Donald Trump Jr., and Elon Musk "zeroed in" on LGBTQ symbols displayed by Butler's social media accounts to suggest that he was transgender. In April 2025, Perry High School band held a concert in memory of Jolliff and Marburger, which featured the premiere of a piece entitled A Mere Moment, composed by Michele Fernandez, as well as a collaboration with Central College's Symphonic Wind Ensemble, which was Marburger's Alma mater. Perry High School named their gym after Marburger, inscribing "Dan Marburger Court" on the floor. In July of 2024, Drake University honored Marburger by awarding him an Iowa Character Award. In October of 2024, Hometown Heritage inducted Marburger into its Wall of Witnesses, which honors influential Perry residents. On June 2, 2025, the city of Perry installed a park bench with the words "You've got a friend in me" written on it, honoring Ahmir Jolliff. A tree was also planted behind the bench. Perry County, Tennessee On September 22, 2025, retired police officer Larry Bushart was arrested for sharing a Facebook meme image quoting Donald Trump's response to the 2024 Perry High School shooting that "We have to get over it" in response to a planned memorial for the shooting death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. The charges alleged that Bushart intended to commit a mass shooting against Perry County High School in Tennessee, though Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems later admitted that he knew the reference to Perry High School in the meme referred to the mass shooting event in Iowa. Bail was set at $2 million, and prosecutors postponed a hearing to reduce bail from October 9 until December 4, 2025. After charges were dropped in late October, Bushart sued the county and its sheriff for first-amendment rights violations in December. ==See also==