PERRY, Iowa - An Iowa principal critically injured in a school shooting put himself in harm’s way as he tried to protect students from a teenage shooter armed with a shotgun and a handgun, state authorities said Friday.

Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger and six other staffers and students were injured in the Thursday morning shooting that left one sixth-grader dead. The 17-year-old student who opened fire also died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.

The state Department of Public Safety said Marburger, who is being treated in a Des Moines hospital, “acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students.”

A day after the shooting, the small community of Perry was 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.

Perry Superintendent Clark Wicks said the soonest classes will resume in the town will be next Friday.

“This is an extremely painful and difficult time for our entire school community, and in our grief, we will take time to remember,” Wicks said.

The shooting happened just after 7:30 a.m. Thursday when the student opened fire, 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 student killed was identified as 11-year-old Ahmir Jollif. An autopsy showed he had been shot three times.

The news that seven students and staff suffered “wounds or injuries of varying degree” during the shooting was two more than authorities said Thursday afternoon at a news conference. It wasn’t immediately clear if all seven were shot, and spokespersons did not immediately respond to inquiries seeking clarity. Besides Marburger, two students remained hospitalized.

In a Facebook post Thursday night, the principal’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. She said it wasn’t surprising that her father tried to protect his students.

“As I heard of a gunman, I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harms way for the benefit of the kids and his staff,” his daughter wrote. “That’s just Dad.”

Wicks called Marburger a “hero” whose actions saved lives, and he expressed appreciation for how several other staff members responded as well.

Authorities said the suspect, identified as Dylan Butler, had a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Mitch Mortvedt, the state investigation division’s assistant director, said during a news conference that authorities also found a “pretty rudimentary” improvised explosive device and rendered it safe.

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, including posts on TikTok and Reddit. 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. Investigators have also found other photos Butler posted posing with firearms, according to the official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Two friends and their mother who spoke with The Associated Press said Butler was a quiet person who had been bullied relentlessly since elementary school. Sisters Yesenia Roeder and Khamya Hall, both 17, said alongside their mother, Alita, that 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.”