Dylan Butler Discord took2much account linked to school shooting discussion board was used moments before attack at Perry, Iowa school that killed 11 year old boy and injured 7 others.
The Iowa school shooter who killed a sixth grader and wounded several others (including his hero school principal) is believed to have communicated with his followers on messaging apps Discord moments before Thursday morning’s attack.
Using the handle: took2much — Dylan Butler, 17, communicated with his followers on the chat platform that he was ‘f—king nervous’ and ‘gearing up’ moments before gunfire erupted inside Perry High School.
The teen gunman is suspected of sending out a series of messages under the account over recent months, with the FBI saying the account was also once reportedly part of a group chat dedicated to school shootings.
Wounded Perry principal dies after talking down Iowa shooter
‘School Massacres Discussion,’
Butler, in one of the messages believed to be from his Discord account, told online friends he was at the school and ready ‘for what’s to come,’ according to screenshots reviewed by NBC News.
Ten minutes after that message, he reportedly wrote ‘I’m f—cking nervous, I’m the bathroom gearing up.’ Two minutes following that, he complained, ‘There’s a n—– in the bathroom, I need him to leave so I can assemble my guns.’
The handle, ‘took2much’ was also in a previous chatroom that discussed school shootings dubbed ‘School Massacres Discussion,’ a Discord user that saw that screen name in the chat told NBC.
The Discord user, who was not identified, contacted the FBI over the chatroom in November and while an FBI agent replied seeking more information, the user never heard back after sending the agent screenshots of the chat according to NBC News.
The user noted the info sent to the FBI did not bring up Butler’s suspected account and the chatroom was closed before the shooting.
Discord a platform for dark themes and school shootings used by previous shooters
The took2much handle was the same used on his TikTok account where the ‘trans gunman’ also issued a foreboding warning hours before Thursday’s shooting, posting a video of himself in a school bathroom with a blue duffle bag at his feet along with the caption: ‘now we wait.’
Butler shot and killed sixth grader Ahmir Jolliff, and injured another four students and three staff members, Thursday at the Iowa high school before he fatally shot himself, police said.
While authorities have yet to say what led to the school shooting in the community of Perry which has a population of only 8,000, the teen according to conversations on various online platforms, alluded to struggling with transitioning from man to women along with his pre-occupation with nihilism, dark pop culture themes, depression and his desire to commit suicide.
Family members would also claim that Butler had been the ongoing target of unrelenting bullying at the school, where despite school officials having been notified, nothing was done to avail the afflicted teen.
The gunman’s various social media accounts, including Discord, are now being reviewed by investigators, NBC reported, citing a person close to the probe.
Discord has previously been used by a mass shooter. In 2022, the convicted shooter in the Buffalo, New York, Tops market attack used Discord before the shooting to discuss combat gear and make what appeared to be a to-do list for the shooting. In December, Discord and police said a 13-year-old was stopped from committing an attack on a synagogue after Discord reported his online activities to authorities.
