Perry High School Shooting Leaves 6th-Grader Dead, 5 Wounded

PERRY, IA — A 17-year-old gunned down a sixth-grader at Perry High School in Iowa on Thursday morning, in a shooting that left five others wounded and sent panicked students fleeing, police said.

Adam Infante, sheriff of Dallas County, told reporters the shooting began around 7:37 a.m. Thursday before school started. Officers arrived in seven minutes and found multiple gunshot victims.

The suspect was a student at the school and died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. At least one victim was a school administrator, AP reported.

Three victims were taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, a spokesperson for its health system told AP. Other patients were taken to a second hospital in Des Moines, a spokesperson for MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center confirmed to AP, declining to comment on the number of patients or their statuses.

Vigils were planned Thursday evening at a park and a local church. A post on the high school's Facebook page said it would close Friday. Counseling services were planned at the public library Friday and Saturday.

The high school is part of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District.

Ava Augustus, a senior at the school, was in a counselor’s office when she heard three gunshots. She and others barricaded the door and prepared to throw things, as a window was too small to a escape.

“And then we hear ‘He’s down. You can go out,’” 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.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.