Hundreds of people gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil Thursday evening, just hours after several people were injured and one killed during a school shooting in Iowa.
Police received a call of an active shooter at 7:37 a.m. at Perry High School and they arrived on the scene within minutes and found multiple shooting victims.
The shooter 17-year-old Dylan Butler had already opened fire shooting five students and the school’s principal, Dan Marburge.
Authorities said Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun.
Mitch Mortvedt, the state investigation division’s assistant director, said during a news conference Thursday that authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device and rendered it safe.
A 6th grade student did not survive and the gunman who was also a student at the school took his own life.
One ninth grader saw the shooter in the bathroom just before the shooting.
“It’s traumatizing because honestly he could have just killed me then and there and I wouldn’t be here right now,” the student said.
It happened on the first day back to school after the Christmas and New Year holidays. Butler began shooting about 20 minutes before classes began.
Before the shooting, Butler posted a
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