A day later, the shooting at a school in Iowa strikes an intimate, painful chord

In downtown Perry, Iowa, residents wore blue Friday to support each other, reflecting the school district’s mascot, the blue jay.

A Catholic priest offered grief counseling to shocked residents. The public library has set up a “sympathy card station” to make cards for Dan Marburger, the principal of Perry High School and one of the victims of Thursday’s shooting that left a sixth-grader dead.

Local residents spent much of Friday absorbing the act of violence that had occurred just as school had resumed after winter break. Authorities said a student, Dylan Butler, 17, shot Mr. Marburger and five students, killing one. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot, police said.

For residents of Perry, a city of 13,000 about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines, the shooting struck an unusually intimate, painful chord. Neither the shooting victims nor the shooter were strangers: Mr. Marburger was a well-known figure in town, a friendly, outgoing teacher — his daughter called him a “gentle giant” — who cared deeply about his students.

Mr Butler was described by people who knew him as a bit strange, but not the kind of person they would suspect of violence. He was the son of Jack Butler, manager of the Perry Municipal Airport and the city’s former director of public works, someone Perry residents say was an active and generous member of the community.

“That’s kind of hard for a lot of people in town, just knowing them, and there’s no way we can believe that happened,” said David Sheffer, owner of the Tin Pig Tavern in Perry.

Claire Marburger, the daughter of the injured principal, urged the public in a Facebook post to “show mercy to the Butler family as we are not the mistakes and actions of our children, or the mistakes and actions of our parents. Please remember that this is something Dylan’s family must also live with, in addition to the loss of their child.”

She added that when she heard about the shooting, she immediately had a feeling her father might be one of the victims.

“It is absolutely no surprise,” she wrote, to learn that her father tried to approach the 17-year-old gunman, talk him down and distract him so students could escape the cafeteria. “That’s just dad.”

Mr. Marburger was in stable condition after undergoing surgery on Thursday.

Many people in Perry had a connection to the shooting. Lisa Christensen, a band instructor, was with a student Thursday morning when they heard gunshots from the hallway, prompting them to hide in a storage room. While in hiding, checking her phone, Mrs. Christensen saw a text from her daughter urging her to flee.

“My main concern was making sure the kids were safe and everyone was safe,” she said.

She said she went to one of the vigils on Thursday evening. “I think the city is broken,” she said. “We all have children who go to school.”

Jennifer Zelaya, 32, who lives in Perry and works at Tyson Foods, has a younger sister who attends Perry High School and was there early Thursday for jazz band practice.

“My sister saw one person on the ground,” she said. “It’s unbelievable that this happened here thanks to all these kind people.”

Iowa has taken steps toward looser gun laws in recent years. In 2021, Governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed a bill that allows Iowa residents are allowed to purchase and carry handguns without a permit. The gunman was armed Friday with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun, police said, as well as an improvised explosive device. It was not disclosed how he obtained the weapons.

But few people in Perry wanted to talk about politics, gun laws or the presidential caucus campaign that revolved around them.

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked about the Perry shooting, he said he was someone parents could count on to “put the safety of our children and the safety of our schools first.” Vivek Ramaswamy linked the shooting to the “mental health epidemic that is spreading like wildfire across our country.”

In Perry, Pastor Jon Williams of First United Methodist Church stopped in the hallway of his church Friday and said he was a gun owner but that the school shooting had made him question the nation’s gun laws.

“Do I think that guns should be completely eradicated and taken away? No,” he said, adding, “But it does make you reconsider after seeing what happened here.” It certainly makes you think.”

Leah McBride Mensching And Molly Langeman reporting contributed.