PERRY, Iowa — Less than 12 hours after the deadly shooting at Perry High School, community members are trying to make sense of the tragedy.
Local 5's Laryssa Leone spoke to one student who says he saw part of the scene unfold. He says if it wasn't for his intuition, he might not have lived to see another day.
The student described early Thursday morning as just a "normal day." When he arrived at school, he walked to the restroom to wait until breakfast opened up.
"As I was waiting there, I heard someone moving around," he said. "And I looked through the little crack in the stall, and I realized it was Dylan."
Police identified the shooter at a press conference Thursday afternoon as 17-year-old Dylan Butler. Butler allegedly killed a sixth-grade student and injured five other people, including four students and one school administrator.
"As [Dylan] looked at me through the crack, he opened his duffel bag and hooked it up," the student told Local 5. "...I stood there for a couple more minutes, and my body just told me like, 'You're not supposed to be here'."
After seeing the alleged shooter, the student left the room and went to a different restroom. When he left, he walked around the corner to the lunchroom, where he heard five bangs.
"I saw people running towards me, telling me to run," he said. "So I turned around and tried helping people alongside me, telling them to run and they followed and we exited the building."
The student told Local 5 that one of his friends is currently in "critical condition in surgery right now".
"It's just really sad to hear," he said. "I felt kind of stunned because I never thought in such a small town like Perry [that] something like this would ever happen. And when it really happens, it's really more serious than you really think."
The student continued on to say, "It's just traumatizing because honestly, he could have just killed me in there and I wouldn't be here right now."