A DeKalb County police officer, already a married father of two with a third child on the way, was killed near Emory University in a shooting that appeared to target the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officer David Rose was identified as the lone casualty of the Friday attack, hours after he was shot and killed by a gunman, potentially motivated by his hatred of vaccines.
Police said the shooter, identified on Saturday as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White of Kennesaw, Ga., set up near the Emory Point shopping mall across from the CDC campus and opened fire just before 5 p.m.
Rose was the first officer on the scene and immediately came under gunfire. He was fatally struck while a second officer was wounded.
“He was committed to serving the community,” Interim Police Chief Greg Padrick said of Rose. “At this time we’re asking for the community’s prayers for his family, his friends, his loved ones and the entire DeKalb County Police Department family.”
Rose was 33 years old. He was a United States Marine Corps veteran and joined the DeKalb department last September after graduating from the Police Academy in March. Next month would have marked his first anniversary on the job.
Police said the shooter was brandishing multiple guns and fired at the windows of the CDC before racing inside the Emory Point CVS on Clifton Road. Authorities followed him to the second floor of the drugstore, where a gunfight ensued.
White was found dead at the scene from a gunshot wound, though it’s unclear whether that came from officers or was self-inflicted.
Authorities have not confirmed a motive for the deadly violence, but sources told CNN that White may have targeted the CDC over personal health issues he blamed on the Covid-19 vaccine.
No other information about White had been released as of late Saturday morning. An investigation into the matter is ongoing.
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