No, Perry High School shooting was not a false flag diversion from Epstein | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·4 min read
8

The claim: Perry High School shooting was a 'false flag' to distract from Epstein documents

A Jan. 4 post on X, formerly Twitter, (direct link, archive link) includes a video of a school surrounded by emergency and law enforcement vehicles.

“Not even 24 hours after the Epstein court document was released we have multiple victims who were shot at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa,” the post reads. “Make no mistake this is a false flag to distract the media from discussing anything in relation to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients.”

The post was reshared more than 5,000 times in one day. The claim also circulated on Facebook.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Fact check roundup: What's true and false about Jeffrey Epstein and the individuals on his list

Our rating: False

There is no evidence the shooting at Perry High School has anything to do with court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. A sixth-grader was killed and the 17-year-old shooter died from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Epstein documents reveal high-profile names, unrelated to fatal shooting

On Jan. 3, documents related to disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed. Among the most notable names included in the documents were former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, though neither was accused of wrongdoing.

Fact check: No Jimmy Kimmel reference in Epstein documents. Those images are fabricated

Law enforcement officials and credible news agencies have not reported any connection between the released documents and the school shooting.

Authorities said 17-year-old Dylan Butler, who attended Perry High School, entered the building before classes started on Jan. 4 and shot five students and one administrator. One child, a sixth grader, was killed. Authorities said Butler was killed by what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A false flag operation is a "military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it," according to BBC News.  Experts previously told USA TODAY that conspiracy theorists regularly misuse the term to falsely claim major news events were staged.

Whether the X user intended to say this was a staged or orchestrated event, a broad array of media coverage and eyewitness accounts make it clear this was simply another tragic school shooting.

Students and parents told reporters what they experienced in the aftermath of the shooting. A father told the Des Moines Register that his son had been grazed by two bullets and sustained minor injuries. Ava Augustus, a senior at the school, told the Associated Press that she saw “glass everywhere, blood on the floor” as she ran.

“I get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg,” Augustus said.

Hospital officials confirmed treating gunshot victims. LifeServe Blood Center, located in Des Moines, posted on X that they had “sent additional blood products to area hospitals to treat victims impacted by the Perry High School shooting.”

The post asserts the timing must mean there is a connection between the Epstein documents and the school shooting, but recent history has shown school shootings to be tragically commonplace. According to data collected by Education Week, 37 school shootings in 2023 resulted in injury or death. In 2022, 51 school shootings resulted in injury or death, the news organization reported.

Within the first four days of 2024, there were two fatal school shootings, including the Iowa shooting, Education Week reported. On Jan. 4, an 18-year-old was killed in the parking lot of a Virginia school during a basketball game.

USA TODAY reached out to the X user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Perry High school shooting unrelated to Epstein documents | Fact check