Who was Dylan Butler? All about Perry Iowa shooter in wake of school shooting that left one dead and four injured 

Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student, was identified as the mass shooter who opened fire at Perry High School, Iowa, on Thursday, January 4, 2024. The incident occurred when students from the nearby middle school were at the high school for a breakfast program twenty minutes before classes were supposed to resume.

Dylan Butler, a senior at Perry High School, armed with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun, fatally shot a sixth-grader and injured five others, including Principal Dan Marburger. He then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the first responders arrived at the school, shortly after 7:40 am.

During a press conference on Thursday, Assistant Director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Mitch Mortvedt said they also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device, which was later disarmed.

Mortvedt did not disclose additional details about the victims but said one was in a critical but non-life-threatening condition. The other four victims were reportedly in stable condition.

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Dylan Butler's social media posts explored in wake of Perry Iowa shooting

On the first day back from holiday break, Butler opened fire inside Perry High School before classes were set to begin. According to reports online, the suspect was reportedly active online moments before carrying out the horrifying act of violence against his schoolmates.

KCCI, citing an anonymous police source, reported that shortly before Thursday’s shooting, Butler posted a photo on TikTok inside the bathroom of Perry High School, captioned “now we wait” as the song Stray Bullet by the German band KMFDM played in the background.

Authorities also found other photos Butler posted posing with firearms on his social media account, which have since been scrubbed clean.

However, multiple social media accounts posted videos of the suspect's TikTok account named 'took too much,' which featured a pride flag in the bio. In one of the since-deleted posts, the teen suspect used the hashtag #genderfluid and identified with the pronouns he/they.

A screenshot of a post from Reddit shared by social media user Shipwreck suggested he was struggling with gender identity issues. Two years ago in a post in r/trans on Reddit, a user named DylanPickle1996, asked:

"Question for those who haven’t started transitioning yet. What’s holding you back?’"

Screenshot from Dylan Butler's social media accounts (Image via Shipwreck/X)

Responding to his own query under the handle, DylanPickle1996, who is presumed to be Butler, answered,

‘I don’t want to look ugly.’

It is important to note these posts were unearthed by social media users and have not been confirmed by official sources.

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Perry Iowa shooting suspect Dylan Butler was bullied at school

Meanwhile, the Associated Press, citing Perry High school students, reported Dylan Butler was relentlessly bullied at school. Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, said alongside their mother, Alita, that the suspect was allegedly picked on since elementary school, adding that his younger sister recently became a target of bullies. Yesenia Roeder Hall said:

“He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment. Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.”

According to CNN, the mass shooting at Perry High School in Iowa was the second school shooting in 2024. On January 3, one person was injured after a shooter opened fire at a school in Midlothian, Virginia.