On January 4, 2024, Perry High School, located in Des Moines, Iowa, was the victim of a school shooting that left one sixth grader dead and seven others wounded. The gunner, 17-year-old Dylan Butler, was found dead with a self-inflicted wound, according to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Spokesman Mitch Mortvedt. The day began as a typical Thursday morning. Buses dropped off high school students returning from a week-long winter break, and students from the adjoining middle school were eating at the breakfast program in the cafeteria.
At around 7:30 AM Butler, a student at the high school, entered the school armed with a shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. He opened fire inside the cafeteria where students from several grades were eating before moving outside. Ava Augustusbeen, a Perry senior, was waiting at her counselor’s office when three gunshots rang in the air. She and the people around her barricaded themselves inside the office until law enforcement arrived. When they exited, a tragic scene awaited them. “You can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor,” Ava said while crying, “[I] get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg.” The injured victims of the shooting were taken to the hospital, one of them in critical condition. Ahmir Jolliff, an 11-year-old boy in sixth grade, was found dead with three shots in his body. “He was so well-loved and he loved everyone,” recounts his mother. His family knew him as “Smiley.” Ahmir was the only fatality of this tragic attack. Authorities arrived within seven minutes of being notified and immediately conducted a search of the school.
Alongside the body of the gunman, they discovered what Mortvedt calls an “improvised explosive device.” Thankfully, the device had not been set off and police were able to successfully disarm it. The shooter is believed to have worked alone with motives that remain unknown. His sisters, Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, and their mother, Alitar, claim that he had been picked on since elementary school and that his anger reached a boiling point when his younger sister began to experience similar bullying. Following the shooting, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half-mast. In a statement, she thanked law enforcement for their “heroic actions” and grieved, saying, “Our hearts are heavy today, and our prayers are with everyone in the Perry community. This senseless tragedy has shaken our entire state to its core. I want this community to know that every Iowan stands with you.” Just hours after the shooting, almost the entire Perry community gathered together at vigils in churches, parks, and factories to mourn the violence. In that time of sorrow and loss, leaders all over the community rose up, organized candle lightings, prayer meetings, services, and counseling. As Iowa State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad said to a grieving group of Perry residents, “Together we will stand.”
This piece also appears in our January 2024 print edition.
