Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante speaks to the media following a shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, U.S., January 4, 2024. REUTERS/Scott Morgan
PERRY, Iowa — Several people were wounded on Thursday morning in a shooting at an Iowa high school on the first day of classes after the holiday break, officials said.
The shooting at Perry High School took place just after 7:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) and resulted in “multiple victims,” Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a news briefing. The extent and exact number of injuries were still being determined, he said.
After the briefing, both CNN and NBC News reported that the shooter was dead, citing law enforcement officials. NBC reported that the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
ABC News previously reported that at least one person was killed, citing unnamed law enforcement officials. During the briefing, Infante did not confirm or deny that report.
The sheriff did say that the shooter had been identified but offered no further information.
Agents from the FBI and ATF responded to the scene, and the U.S. attorney general has been briefed, a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson said.
The shooting occurred on what was to be the first day of the spring semester, according to the school district’s calendar. Perry, a town of about 7,900, is about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Des Moines, the state’s capital city.
Few students and faculty were in the building at the time, since classes had not yet begun, Infante said, which may have curtailed the number of victims.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who founded a biotechnology company, had been scheduled to hold a rally in Perry but changed the event to an in-person prayer after reports of the shooting, a campaign spokesperson said.
Iowa will hold the first statewide contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in 11 days.
“Pray for the community in Perry, Iowa this morning.” Ramaswamy said on the X social media platform.