PERRY, Iowa (AP) — Police in Perry, Iowa, said several people were shot Thursday at the town's high school, early in the morning of the first day students returned to class after winter break.
annual.
Two gunshot victims were taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in the state capital Des Moines, about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Perry, a community of about 8,000 people.
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Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said the shooting happened before school started so there were very few students and teachers at Perry High School.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the suspect involved in the shooting died from what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The shooting occurred amid the Iowa caucuses and not far from where Republican presidential candidates were campaigning.
An active shooter was reported at 7:37 a.m.
Thursday and police arrived seven minutes later, Infante said.
He added at a news conference that police discovered several injured people but could not confirm their number or condition.
A spokesperson for UnityPoint Health, which operates the Des Moines hospital, confirmed the arrival of two shooting victims.
A large number of emergency vehicles surrounded the building housing the city's middle and high schools.
Zander Shelley, 15, was waiting in the hallway to start the school day when he heard gunshots and ran into the classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley.
Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7: 36:00 Kevin Shelley, the garbage truck driver, told his boss he had to run.
“I was the most scared person of my life,” he said.
Rachael Kares, 18, was finishing her jazz band practice when she and her classmates heard what she described as four gunshots spaced apart.
“We all danced,” Kares said.
“My music teacher looked at us and shouted, “Run!
” So we ran.
Kares and many other students at the school ran to the front of the soccer field when they heard people screaming: "Get out!
" Get out!
” She said she heard more gunshots as she ran, but didn't know how many.
She was more worried about bringing her 3-year-old son home.
“At that point, I didn't care about anything except going out because I had to get home to my son," she said.
FBI agents from the Omaha-Des Moines field were present.
to help the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation investigate "There's a lot of police speculation numbers going around," said Perry Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh.
“We don't have any confirmed figures yet on who was involved.
” Erica Jolliff said her daughter, a 9th grader, said she rushed out of school at 7 a.m.
45 pm.
Distraught, Jolliff was still searching for his son Amir, a sixth grader, an hour later.
"I just want to know that he's okay and he's okay," Jolliff said.
“They won't tell me anything.
” Jasmine Augustine, 18, was at high school right after everything happened Thursday morning.
She said she was driving a high school friend and her brother, who attended elementary school in a town about a mile away.
“I was at the Casey convenience store and saw a car speeding by.
I thought just someone was arrested,” she said.
