A Georgia man who wanted to send a message against COVID-19 vaccines fired over 180 times with a long gun at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer, authorities said.
Patrick Joseph White, 30, who has been identified as the shooter in the attack late Friday at the CDC, tried to get into the complex but was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire, authorities said. White took his own life during the attack.
A union representing CDC workers said the shooting was not random and “compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured.” It demanded that federal officials condemn vaccine misinformation, saying it puts scientists at risk.
Here's what to know about the shooting and the continuing investigation:
An attack on a prominent public health institution
The barrage of gunfire unleashed by White left bullet marks in windows across the sprawling campus, police said. At least four CDC buildings were hit, CDC Director Susan Monarez said on the social platform X.
The bullets pierced “blast-resistant” windows, pinning employees down, and more than 500 shell casings were recovered, authorities said.
David Rose, a DeKalb County police officer, was fatally wounded while responding. Rose, a 33-year-old former Marine who served in Afghanistan, graduated from the police academy in March.
White was found on the second floor of a building across the street from the campus and died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. His death was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.
Union calls for condemnation of vaccine misinformation and tighter security
The American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2883, said the CDC and leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services must provide a “clear and unequivocal stance in condemning vaccine disinformation.”
Such a public statement by federal officials is needed to help prevent violence against scientists, the union said.
“Their leadership is critical in reinforcing public trust and ensuring that accurate, science-based information prevails,” it said in a statement.
Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees, has said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is directly responsible for the villainization of the workforce through “his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust.”
Public health leaders have been experiencing harassment and violence around the country since anti-vaccine vitriol took root during the pandemic. Kennedy has amplified the rhetoric, repeatedly making false and misleading statements about the safety of immunizations.
He told staffers over the weekend that “no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” without addressing the impact of anti-vaccine rhetoric.
HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said Monday in a statement that Kennedy “has unequivocally condemned the horrific attack and remains fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of CDC employees.” Nixon added that Rose's “sacrifice to protect the CDC on its darkest day will never be forgotten.”
Thousands of people who work on critical disease research are employed on the campus. The union said some staffers huddled in various buildings until late at night Friday, while more than 90 young children were locked down inside the CDC's Clifton School.
The union said CDC employees should not be required to immediately return to work after such a traumatic event.
It said windows and buildings should first be fixed and made “completely secure.” The union also called for “perimeter security on all campuses” until the investigation is completed and the results are shared with staffers.
Shooter had a fixation with the COVID-19 vaccine
White was living with his parents, and his father contacted police and identified his son as the possible shooter. The father said White was upset over the death of his dog and became fixated on the COVID-19 vaccine, according to law enforcement officials.
Authorities recovered documents and electronic devices at the family’s suburban Atlanta home that are being analyzed, as well as five firearms including a gun belonging to the father that was used in the attack, authorities said.
White did not have a key to his father's gun safe, Hosey said: “He broke into it.”
The documents recovered by authorities “expressed the shooter’s discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations,” and White had written about wanting to make “the public aware of his discontent with the vaccine,” Hosey added.
White also recently verbalized thoughts of suicide, which led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks before the shooting, Hosey said. His father told police he blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
A neighbor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that White “seemed like a good guy” but spoke with her multiple times in unrelated conversations about his distrust of COVID-19 vaccines.
“He was very unsettled, and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people,” Nancy Hoalst told the paper. “He emphatically believed that.”
But Hoalst said she never believed White would be violent: “I had no idea he thought he would take it out on the CDC.”
Susan Haigh, The Associated Press
