Patrick Joseph White, the gunman who opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, killing DeKalb County police officer David Rose, on Friday, Aug. 8, told others that he was upset with the CDC, saying that he suffered from depression after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. White entered the CVS at Clifton Road at approximately 5:00 p.m. on Friday and began firing multiple rounds at the CDC office building located across the street from the pharmacy.
White who died from a gunshot wound, reportedly took aim at the Centers for Disease Control security officers in the building and killed Rose who was the first to respond to the active shooter call. It is unclear at this time if the bullet that killed White was self-inflicted or the result of shots fired from responding officers.
The suspect’s father reached out to authorities and identified his son as the possible shooter, the law enforcement official said. The father told authorities that his son had been upset over the death of his dog and seemed depressed because of the COVID-19 vaccine
DeKalb County Police chief and DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran Johnson were with Officer David Rose’s family at Emory hospital when he succumbed to his injuries only hours after he shooting.
“This evening there’s a wife without a husband, three children, one unborn, without a father, and a mother and father as well as siblings who also share in this traumatic loss. My heart goes out to my DeKalb County family. Tonight, it is with profound sadness that I say to all frontline responders that we are here to support you. Let us join together to give the family of Officer Rose the support they need,” said DeKalb County CEO, Lorraine Cochran Johnson
To date, nearly $200,000 has been raised for the family of the DeKalb County police officer
During the tragic shooting, 92 children who were in a day care facility attached to the CDC were moved to the Clifton School campus where they were safely reunited with their families.
Nancy Hoalst, who lives in the same cul-de-sac as White’s family, said he seemed like a good guy, while doing yard work and walking dogs for neighbors, but would bring up vaccines even in unrelated conversations.
“He was very unsettled, and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people,” Hoalst told the Atlanta newspaper. “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.”
Friday’s shooting is the third mass shooting in Atlanta in a week. Sgt Quornelius Radford, 28, a Ft. Stewart Army seargent, shot five other soldiers at the base earlier this week. On Edgewood Avenue in a popular nightlife district, 1 man was killed, and 10 others were wounded over the last weekend.
