A police officer was killed during a shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta campus at Emory University.
Shots were first reported just before 5 p.m. local time near the Emory Point CVS, prompting Emory University to issue an emergency alert and an order to shelter in place and for the CDC campus to be locked down.
The shelter-in-place order for the university has been lifted, as police have confirmed there is no further threat, though the CDC campus remains on lockdown. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens expressed his gratitude to law enforcement for responding swiftly to secure the scene.
DeKalb County Police confirmed that one of their officers who responded to the situation was killed. While his name was not released, DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson mentioned his family, a pregnant wife, and their two children in her statement to the press. ”Let’s join together to give this family the support it needs during this traumatic loss,” she said.
The suspected gunman is also dead. CNN reported that his father called law enforcement before the shooting occurred to report that his son was suicidal.
Photos circulating on social media show that some bullets hit a CDC building located near The Clifton School daycare. All 92 children who were in the childcare center at the time are safe, Dickens confirmed.
WSB-TV spoke to one mother who walked a mile to the campus to try and get closer to her son and her wife, who was meant to be picking him up.
“Everyone appears to be safe. I just need to see them,” Kristin Coles told the station. “I just need to hold him and be with him and know that he’s OK and see him in person.”
CNN spoke to law enforcement officials who shared that they believe the shooter was sick, or believed he was sick, and blamed COVID-19 vaccines, and by extension, the CDC, for his illness.
Mayor Dickens, a Democrat, said that CDC employees have “had a tough go of it in the past year,” referencing the uncertainty surrounding their job stability following massive cuts across multiple federal agencies; the CDC has lost almost a quarter of its employees since Trump took office.
The CDC previously oversaw the rollout of vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic, but vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been working to dismantle the CDC’s legacy since his appointment as Health and Human Services Secretary.
In June, when resigning from the agency, a top vaccine specialist said that Kennedy’s promotion of anti-vax beliefs will cause ”a lot of Americans to die.”
“If it isn’t stopped, and some of this isn’t reversed, like, immediately, a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Dr. Fiona Havers told The New York Times.
CDC Director Susan Monarez issued a statement on X that read, “We at @CDCgov are heartbroken by today’s attack on our Roybal Campus, which remains on lockdown as authorities investigate the shooting.”
”A courageous local law enforcement officer gave their life, and another was injured, after a gunman opened fire on at least four CDC buildings,” she continued.
”We are deeply grateful to Governor Kemp, Georgia residents, and the American people for standing with us during this difficult time.”
