{"id":56696,"date":"2025-08-10T02:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T02:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56696\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T02:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T02:20:09","slug":"gunman-believed-covid-vaccine-made-him-suicidal-his-father-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56696\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunman believed COVID vaccine made him suicidal, his father alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Georgia man who opened fire on the US<\/a> Centres for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, shooting dozens of rounds into the sprawling complex and killing a police officer, had blamed the COVID-19<\/a> vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old shooter also tried to get into the CDC\u2019s headquarters in Atlanta but was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire late on Friday afternoon, the official said.<\/p>\n

He was armed with five guns, including at least one long gun, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the investigation.<\/p>\n

\"GunmanA bullet hole is visible in the door of a CVS pharmacy on Saturday, August 9, 2025, near where police say a man was shooting at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Jeff Amy) (AP)<\/p>\n

DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was mortally wounded while responding.<\/p>\n

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose skepticism of vaccines has been a cornerstone of his career, voiced support for CDC employees on Saturday. But some laid-off CDC employees said Kennedy shares responsibility for the violence and should resign.<\/p>\n

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation named Patrick Joseph White as the shooter, but authorities haven’t said whether he was killed by police or killed himself.<\/p>\n

The suspect\u2019s father contacted police and identified his son as the possible shooter, the law enforcement official told AP. The father said his son had been upset over the death of the son\u2019s dog, and he had also become fixated on the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the official. The family lives in Kennesaw, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb about 40 kilometres north-west of CDC headquarters.<\/p>\n

A voicemail left at a phone number listed publicly for White\u2019s family wasn\u2019t returned Saturday.<\/p>\n

Employees at the CDC are shaken<\/p>\n

The shooting left gaping bullet holes in windows across the CDC campus, where thousands work on critical disease research.<\/p>\n

Employees huddled under lockdown for hours while investigators gathered evidence.<\/p>\n

Staff was encouraged to work from home on Monday or take leave.<\/p>\n

\"GunmanPedestrians comfort each other after a shooting near the campuses of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jenni Girtman\/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) (AP)<\/p>\n

At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said on X.<\/p>\n

Sam Atkins, who lives in Stone Mountain, said outside the CVS pharmacy on Saturday that gun violence feels like \u201ca fact of life\u201d now. \u201cThis is an everyday thing that happens here in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy reaches out to staff<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting at CDC\u2019s Atlanta campus that took the life of officer David Rose,\u201d Kennedy said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today. No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some rejected the expressions of solidarity Kennedy made in a \u201cDear colleagues\u201d email, and called for his resignation.<\/p>\n

\"GunmanAn armed Police officer prepares near the scene of shooting at the Emory University in Atlanta on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart) (AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cKennedy is directly responsible for the villainisation of CDC\u2019s workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust,\u201d said Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off employees opposing changes to the CDC by President Donald Trump’s administration.<\/p>\n

Under Kennedy, CDC has laid off nearly 2000 employees. Trump proposes cutting the agency\u2019s budget in half next year, moving some CDC functions into a new Administration for a Healthy America. Kennedy has a history as a leader in the anti-vaccine movement, but he reached new prominence by spreading distrust of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

For example, he called it \u201ccriminal medical malpractice\u201d to give COVID-19 vaccines to children.<\/p>\n

\"RFKThere are calls for Robert F. Kennedy Jr to resign over vaccine mistrust. (AP)<\/p>\n

Kennedy parlayed that attention into a presidential bid and endorsement of Trump, leading to Trump naming him secretary. Kennedy continues to undercut the scientific consensus for vaccines, ordering US$500 million ($766m) cut from vaccine development funding on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Opponents say officials’ rhetoric contributed<\/p>\n

Fired But Fighting also called for the resignation of Russell Vought, noting a video recorded before Trump appointed him Office of Management and Budget director with orders to dismantle much of the federal government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,\u201d Vought said in the video, obtained by ProPublica and the research group Documented. \u201cWhen they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.\u201d<\/p>\n

A request for comment from Vought\u2019s agency wasn’t returned.<\/p>\n

This shooting was the \u201cphysical embodiment of the narrative that has taken over, attacking science, and attacking our federal workers,\u201d said Sarah Boim, a former CDC communications staffer who was fired this year during a wave of terminations.<\/p>\n

A distrust of COVID-19 vaccines<\/p>\n

A neighbor of White told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that White spoke with her multiple times about his distrust of COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

Nancy Hoalst, who lives on the same street as White\u2019s family, said he seemed like a “good guy\u201d while doing yard work and walking dogs for neighbours, but he would bring up vaccines even in unrelated conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very unsettled, and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people.\u201d Hoalst told the Atlanta newspaper. \u201cHe emphatically believed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Hoalst said she never believed White would be violent: \u201cI had no idea he thought he would take it out on the CDC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slain officer leaves wife and 3 kids<\/p>\n

Rose, 33, was a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, graduated from the police academy in March and \u201cquickly earned the respect of his colleagues for his dedication, courage and professionalism,\u201d DeKalb County said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,\u201d DeKalb County chief executive Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Growing security concerns<\/p>\n

Senior CDC leadership told some staff on Saturday that they would do a full security assessment following the shooting, according to a conference call recording obtained by the AP.<\/p>\n

One staffer said people felt like \u201csitting ducks\u201d Friday. Another asked whether administrators had spoken with Kennedy and if they could speak to \u201cthe misinformation, the disinformation\u201d that \u201ccaused this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is clear CDC leaders fear employees could continue to be targeted. In a Saturday email obtained by the AP, CDC’s security office asked employees to scrape old CDC parking decals off their vehicles. The office said decals haven\u2019t been required for some time.<\/p>\n

CRISIS SUPPORT AND SUICIDE PREVENTION<\/p>\n

Beyond Blue \u00a01300 22 4636.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Georgia man who opened fire on the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, shooting dozens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-56696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}