Perry High School shooting victim identified as 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff
Sixth-grader Ahmir Jolliff has been identified as the student killed during a mass shooting at Perry High School in Iowa on Thursday.
Authorities on Friday confirmed Jolliff was one of eight victims in the shooting, upping the previously reported number of victims by two. Seven others — among them three staff members and four students — “received wounds or injuries of varying degree,” the Iowa Department of Public Safety said in a statement Friday night.
The gunman, identified as 17-year-old Dylan Butler, was also found dead in wake of the deadly violence at Perry High, where he was a student.
Police said he burst into the building, 40 miles west of Des Moines, around around 7:40 a.m. local time, just before the first day of the spring semester was set to begin.
Butler, armed with two guns — a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun— then opened fire, at one point fatally striking 11-year-old Jolliff.
Authorities said he suffered three gunshot wounds.
“He was my best friend,” his classmate, Zoey Bautista, told KCCI. “He was always there for everybody.”
Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, who has been with the school for 25 years, was also wounded in the gunfire.
“The investigation thus far confirms Principal Marburger acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students,” the Iowa Department of Public Safety said.
His daughter in a Facebook post said he approached the gunman near the cafeteria, where a smattering of students were eating breakfast, with the hopes of giving them time to flee. She added that after a series of surgeries, her father was listed in stable condition. Perry schools superintendent Clark Wicks called Marburger a “hero,” adding that he likely “saved some lives.”
Two other students remain hospitalized while the remaining victims have since been treated and released, the Iowa Department of Public Safety confirmed.
So far, a motive for the deadly violence remains unclear and an investigation is ongoing.
