PERRY, Iowa — A day after a shooting sent bullets flying inside a small-town Iowa high school, leaving a sixth grader dead and five people wounded, the community of Perry is somber.

Yellow crime tape still lined the campus that Perry High School shares with the town’s middle school, flowers and stuffed toys had cropped up in mini memorials, and classes across the district were canceled Friday in favor of counseling.

On Thursday, a 17-year-old student opened fire at the school just after 7:30 a.m., forcing people to hunker down in classrooms and offices shortly before classes were set to begin on the first day back after winter break.

The suspect, identified as Dylan Butler, died of what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation official said. An administrator, later identified as Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, was among those wounded.

In a Facebook post later that day, Marburger’s daughter said he was in “surgery all day, and is currently stable.”

Claire Marburger called her father a “gentle giant” who would want more attention on the other victims and their families and less on himself.

State police said Marburger put himself at extra risk by trying to protect students from the teenage gunman.

Authorities said Butler had a pump-action shotgun and a handgun.

Mitch Mortvedt, the state investigation division’s assistant director, said authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device.

A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said federal and state investigators were interviewing Butler’s friends and analyzing Butler’s social media profiles. However, authorities have provided no information about a possible motive in the shooting.

Shortly before Thursday’s shooting, Butler posted a photo on TikTok inside the bathroom of Perry High School, the official said. The photo was captioned “now we wait” and the song “Stray Bullet” by the German band KMFDM accompanied it.

Two friends and their mother said Butler was a quiet person who had been bullied for years.

Sisters Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, said alongside their mother, Alita, that Butler was bullied relentlessly since elementary school, but it escalated recently when his younger sister started getting picked on too.

“He was hurting. He got tired. He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment,” Yesenia Roeder Hall said. “Was it a smart idea to shoot up the school? No. God, no.”

Three gunshot victims were treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, a spokesperson said. Others were taken to a second hospital, a spokesperson for MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center confirmed.

Mortvedt said one person was in critical condition, but the injuries didn’t appear to be life-threatening, and the others were stable.