The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has identified the man who opened fire at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White of Kennesaw, Georgia.
The GBI statement says White died and Officer David Rose with the DeKalb County Police Department was shot and killed during the shooting Friday.
The shooter opened fire outside the CDC headquarters, striking windows across the sprawling campus and killing the officer before he was found dead in a nearby building, authorities said. The attack prompted a massive law enforcement response to one of the nation’s most prominent public health institutions, but no one else was reported to be injured.
At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said in a post on X. Images shared by employees showed multiple agency buildings with bullet-pocked windows, underscoring the breadth of the damage to a site where thousands of scientists and staff work on critical disease research.
Without naming White last night, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens described him as a “known person that may have, some interest in certain things.”
The gunman was found on the second floor of a building across the street from the CDC campus and died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. He added Friday that “we do not know at this time whether that was from officers or if it was self-inflicted.”
The shooter was armed with a long gun, and authorities recovered three other firearms at the scene, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
The gunman’s motive is still unknown this early in the investigation, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Friday.
A voicemail left at a phone number listed for White in public records was not immediately returned Saturday morning.
Rose, 33, was a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and graduated from the police academy in March and “quickly earned the respect of his colleagues for his dedication, courage and professionalism,” DeKalb County said in a statement.
“This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,” DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said.
The GBI is leading the investigation, and said Saturday that unraveling what happened could take time.
“There is extensive evidence to collect due to the complex scene,” the agency said in its statement. “Numerous interviews are being conducted. This investigation will take an extended period of time.”
