The person who fired greater than 180 pictures with an extended gun on the headquarters of the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention broke right into a locked protected to get his father’s weapons and wished to ship a message in opposition to COVID-19 vaccines, authorities stated Tuesday.
Paperwork present in a search of the house the place Patrick Joseph White lived together with his mother and father “expressed the shooter’s discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey stated.
White, 30, had written about eager to make “the general public conscious of his discontent with the vaccine,” Hosey stated.
White additionally had not too long ago verbalized ideas of suicide, which led to legislation enforcement being contacted a number of weeks earlier than the taking pictures, Hosey stated. He died on the scene Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing a police officer.
Requested about threats primarily based on misinformation relating to the CDC and its vaccine work, FBI Particular Agent Paul Brown stated Tuesday: “We’ve not seen an uptick, though any rhetoric that means or results in violence is one thing we take very critically.”
“Though we’re monitoring it, we’re delicate to it. We have now not seen that uptick,” stated Brown, who leads the FBI’s Atlanta division.
The suspect’s household was absolutely cooperating with the investigation, authorities stated on the Tuesday information briefing. White had no recognized prison historical past, Hosey stated.
Executing a search warrant on the household’s house within the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, authorities recovered written paperwork which might be being analyzed, and seized digital units which might be present process a forensic examination, the company stated.
Investigators additionally recovered a complete of 5 firearms, together with a gun belonging to his father that he used within the assault, Hosey stated.
Hosey stated the suspect didn’t have a key to the gun protected: “He broke into it,” he stated.
White had been stopped by CDC safety guards earlier than driving to a pharmacy throughout the road, the place he opened fireplace from a sidewalk, authorities stated. The bullets pierced “blast-resistant” home windows throughout the campus, pinning staff down throughout the barrage. Greater than 500 shell casings have been recovered from the crime scene, the GBI stated.
Within the aftermath, officers on the CDC are assessing the safety of the campus and ensuring they notify officers of any new threats.
U.S. Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured the CDC campus on Monday, accompanied by Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and CDC Director Susan Monarez, in line with a well being company assertion.
“Nobody ought to face violence whereas working to guard the well being of others,” Kennedy stated in a press release Saturday. It stated prime federal well being officers are “actively supporting CDC workers.”
Kennedy additionally visited the DeKalb County Police Division, and later met privately with the slain officer’s spouse.
A photograph of the suspect will probably be launched later Tuesday, Hosey stated, however he inspired the general public to recollect the face of the officer as a substitute.
Kennedy was a frontrunner in a nationwide anti-vaccine motion earlier than President Donald Trump chosen him to supervise federal well being businesses, and he has made false and deceptive statements concerning the security and effectiveness of COVID-19 pictures and different vaccines.
Some unionized CDC staff referred to as for extra protections. Some staff who not too long ago left the company because the Trump administration pursues widespread layoffs, in the meantime, squarely blamed Kennedy.
Years of false rhetoric about vaccines and public well being was certain to “take a toll on folks’s psychological well being,” and “results in violence,” stated Tim Younger, a CDC worker who retired in April.
—By Charlotte Kramon and Jeff Martin, Related Press
