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WASHINGTON — Multiple people were wounded Thursday morning in a shooting at Perry High School near Des Moines, Iowa, the county sheriff said.
The shooter is dead, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The shooter has been identified, Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said, declining to say whether anyone else had been killed or answer any more questions.
“We’re still unclear exactly how many are injured,” he added. “There is no further danger to the public.”
By late morning, “I think all the kids have been reunified,” he said, with parents and others who had rushed to the school upon hearing a shooting had unfolded.
Authorities responded within 7 minutes to a call at 7:37 a.m. of an active shooter at the campus, Infante said. “There was very few students and faculty in the building,” he said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed their agents had responded to the high school, as did the Iowa State Patrol, Sgt. Alex Dinkla told CNN, and police vehicles from multiple cities.
“We are assisting the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, who is the lead investigative agency,” the FBI said in a statement.
The White House is aware of and tracking reports of a shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa, an official told CNN.
“Multiple law enforcement and medical staff are on site for a shooting at Perry High School,” according to an earlier post on the Dallas County Facebook page. “The site has been secured and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office will release more information as it becomes available.”
Perry is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines and has a population of about 8,000, according to the US Census Bureau. The Perry Community School District — comprised of the high school, a middle school and an elementary school — serves about 1,800 students, its website says.
Thursday was scheduled to be the first day of classes for the new semester, according to the district’s calendar. Classes at Perry High School have been canceled for the day, CNN affiliate KCCI reported.
More than 80 school shootings unfolded in the United States last year – more than in any year since 2008, when CNN began tracking shootings. — CNN
