Explore More
Gunman Dylan Butler endured years of relentless bullying that had recently engulfed his sister in the leadup to his violent rampage at his rural Iowa high school Thursday, community members said.
The 17-year-old was armed with a pump-action shotgun, a small-caliber handgun and a makeshift explosive device when he opened fire at Perry High School at 7:47 a.m., police said.
Butler killed a sixth-grader and injured five others, including his principal, before turning the gun on himself.
He had plans to kill many more — his body was found with the not-yet-detonated improvised explosive device, which cops described as “pretty rudimentary.”
The teenager is believed to have acted alone, though his motive remains unclear.
One family who knew Butler described him as a quiet person who had endured bullying since elementary school.
Sisters Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, alongside their mother, Alita, told the Associated Press that Butler finally snapped after his younger sister started getting picked on, too.
School officials never intervened, which they said was “the last straw” for Butler.
“He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment,” Yesenia said.
“Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.”
On the verge of tears, Khamya called Butler “the kindest person ever” before heartbreakingly insinuating that she and her friends could have been to blame for the rampage.
“He was there for us when we needed him, and we tried to be there when he needed us, which clearly we weren’t there for him enough,” she said.
He posted a cryptic video to his since-deleted social media in the moments before the harrowing rampage on the small-town campus that housed both a middle school and high school, 40 miles northwest of Des Moines.
In the TikTok video, Butler posed in a bathroom stall at the school with a blue duffle bag at his feet along with the caption: “now we wait.”
The video was overlaid with the song “Stray Bullet” by rock group KMFDM — which features lyrics like “I’m your nightmare coming true, I am your worst enemy,” and “Stray bullet, from the barrel of love.”
It was also infamously used on the personal website of Eric Harris, one of the shooters in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.
Other purported videos from the account that were shared on Reddit show Butler emulating the Cook from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and Jeffrey Dahmer by repeating popular mannerisms and lines from various shows.
He is also seen pointing a stick at a friend as if it were a gun in one of several clips where he references being a “stoner.”
Investigators have also found other photos Butler posted posing with firearms, insiders told the Associated Press.
It is not clear whether the firearms used in the rampage belonged to Butler.
As of July 2021, Iowa does not require a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a firearm in public, though it mandates a background check for anyone buying a handgun without a permit.
Police did not identify Butler’s six victims, but the Easton Valley Community School District confirmed that Dan Marburger, the school’s principal since 1995, was one of the survivors.
“Our hearts break to hear of this kind of violence that affects so many people, including many in our community. Our thoughts will also be with the entire Perry community as they grieve through this traumatic event. We will follow up with any updates once we receive more information,” the district said in a statement.
One of the five survivors is in critical condition but the injuries didn’t appear to be life-threatening, police said. The other four victims were stable.
The attack came on the first day back in class after winter break, but Butler opened fire before the opening bell, when “very few students and faculty” were in the building, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a press conference in the aftermath of the shooting.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3V7j2pmaWxfo7K4v46wn6hlmah6qrvWmmSsm5ikvK150qGmqKyZo7Ruv9Ssp56bpGKxurjAp2SbraShsrN7