A sixth-grade pupil was killed and five other people were wounded by a 17-year-old suspect in a shooting on Thursday at a small-town high school in Iowa, authorities in the US, said.
The suspect died of what investigators believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and at least one of the victims is a school administrator, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The town of Perry has about 8,000 residents and is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, on the edge of the state capital’s metropolitan area.
High school senior Ava Augustus said she was in a counsellor’s office when she heard three shots. She and other people barricaded the door, preparing to throw things if necessary, as the window was too small for an escape.
“And then we hear ‘He’s down. You can go out’,” Ms Augustus said through tears.
“And I run and you can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg.”
A post on the school’s Facebook page said it would be closed on Friday, with counselling services planned at the public library on Friday and Saturday.
Mass shootings across the US have long brought calls for stricter gun laws from gun safety advocates.
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 a person buying a handgun without a permit.
An active gunman at the school was reported at 7.37am and officers arrived seven minutes later, Dallas County sheriff Adam Infante said. Emergency vehicles surrounded the school.
Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7.36am.
Rachael Kares, 18, was finishing jazz band practice when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, spaced apart.
“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”
