Brace yourself for a story that cuts deep into the heart of America’s culture wars—a tragic shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, that left a hero cop dead and a nation asking hard questions.
Late Friday afternoon, 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White unleashed chaos at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus, firing dozens of rounds, killing a DeKalb County police officer, and later targeting a nearby pharmacy after being stopped by guards, AP News reported.
The rampage began when White, a Georgia resident from Kennesaw, attempted to breach the CDC complex but was turned away by security.
Responding to the crisis, Officer David Rose, a 33-year-old former Marine and Afghanistan veteran who graduated from the police academy just this March, was mortally wounded in the line of duty.
Rose, a respected figure known for his courage and professionalism, leaves behind a wife, two children, and an unborn third—heartbreaking collateral damage in a senseless act. As DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson put it, “This evening, there is a wife without a husband.”
That kind of loss isn’t just a statistic; it’s a gut punch to every community that values law and order over chaos.
After failing to enter the CDC, White drove across the street to a pharmacy and continued his shooting spree, armed with five firearms, including a long gun, according to law enforcement.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified White as the shooter, though it remains unclear whether he was killed by police or took his own life. What is clear, per his father’s statement to authorities, is that White blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for his depression and suicidal thoughts, alongside grief over his dog’s death.
Neighbor Nancy Hoalst told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that White “very deeply believed” vaccines harmed him, though she added, “I had no idea he thought he would take it out on the CDC.” Well, turns out actions have consequences, and White’s fixation on a narrative of distrust exploded into violence.
The shooting left bullet holes in windows across at least four CDC buildings, where thousands of employees work on critical disease research, forcing a hours-long lockdown as investigators combed the scene.
In the aftermath, CDC staff were told to work from home or take leave on Monday, while senior leadership planned a full security assessment during a Saturday conference call. Even the security office emailed employees to ditch old parking decals, a small but telling sign of heightened fear.
CDC leaders openly admitted their worry that employees could remain targets, a chilling reality in a climate where “Save the CDC” signs dot Atlanta neighborhoods amid funding cuts, layoffs, and political battles over the agency’s mission.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., known for questioning vaccine safety, expressed support for CDC employees, saying, “We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting.” Yet some laid-off CDC workers, under the banner Fired but Fighting, shot back, claiming Kennedy’s rhetoric fuels hostility with “continuous lies about science.”
That accusation stings, but let’s be honest: when former CDC staffer Sarah Boim calls this shooting “the physical embodiment” of an anti-science narrative, it’s worth asking if the left’s obsession with silencing dissent hasn’t also fanned these flames. The culture war over vaccines and federal overreach isn’t new, and both sides have dug in deeper than a Georgia peach tree.
Meanwhile, a Stone Mountain resident, Sam Atkins, shrugged outside a CVS pharmacy, saying this violence is “an everyday thing” in Georgia—a sad commentary on how numb we’ve become to tragedy. If we’re going to fix this, it’ll take more than thoughts and prayers; it’ll take a hard look at how distrust in institutions like the CDC has been weaponized. But don’t hold your breath for D.C. to lead that conversation—they’re too busy pointing fingers.
