A gunman attacked the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday, further shaking an agency in the midst of a tumultuous year.
One police officer died in the shooting. Atlanta police said the shooter was killed and there was no ongoing threat in a release at 6:40 p.m.
Susan Monarez, the agency’s director who was sworn in just last week, said in a post on X that the agency was working with federal, state, and local law enforcement to investigate the shooting.
“Our top priority is the safety and well-being of everyone at CDC,” Monarez wrote.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared Monarez’s post on X but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At least four buildings on the CDC’s Roybal Campus, near the campus of Emory University, were struck with gunfire, leaving bullet holes in windows. One of the buildings hit by gunfire includes the offices of the agency’s leadership, according to one employee in the agency, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
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CDC campus remained on lockdown past 9:00 p.m., according to Monarez. The 92 children who were in daycare on the CDC campus were safe, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens told reporters Friday.
When alerted to the threat, employees were instructed in an email to prepare to run, hide, or fight as the campus was put on lockdown. Later, CDC leaders informed employees they would be allowed to work remotely on Monday following the shooting and said Employee Assistance Program staff would be on call through the weekend, according to an internal email reviewed by STAT.
The shooter’s motives may have included a belief that the Covid-19 vaccine made him sick, CNN reported Friday evening.
“It’s so preliminary,” Dickens said, declining to outline a theory of the shooter’s motive. “Some assumptions of his motives” may be known in “short order,” he said.
Monarez said the agency was “actively coordinating with federal, state, and local partners to fully investigate the shooter and this tragic crime.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called the news “horrifying” and offered his prayers in a social media post.
“To the men and women who work at CDC, we know you had a rough go of it in the past year, and my heart goes out to you,” Dickens said, adding, “Then today, this occurs.”
The violence rattled an agency already in turmoil from widespread federal layoffs, unprecedented policy changes in the agency, and fears about the politicization — and skepticism — of the public health agency.
The shooting also comes after the CDC’s divisions tasked with tracking and reducing gun violence were slashed by cuts across the federal government. Advocates who work to reduce gun violence decried the slashes in staff and holdups in funding, saying they could jeopardize ongoing efforts to stop gun violence.
Helen Branswell and Chelsea Cirruzzo contributed reporting.
