The shimmering low-rise metal and glass towers at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were pocked with dozens of bullet holes. Cracks streaked windows. Shell casings littered a sidewalk across the street.
Law enforcement officials said that Patrick Joseph White, a 30-year-old from the suburbs of Atlanta, opened fire on the complex of buildings on Friday afternoon. He had become fixated with the coronavirus vaccine, believing that it was the cause of his own physical ailments, officials said, and he attacked the institution that has been at the center of rampant conspiracy theories and misinformation about the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
Mr. White was found fatally shot, although it was unclear if he had been killed in an exchange of gunfire with the police or it was self-inflicted, police officials said. An officer from the DeKalb County Police Department — a rookie not even a year into the job — was killed.
Investigators on Saturday were piecing together Mr. White’s history, trying to understand what precipitated the spray of gunfire.
Five guns were recovered at the scene, according to a preliminary internal report on the investigation from the Justice Department. Four of the weapons were long guns, and at least one of the weapons was equipped with a scope, according to the report, which was reviewed by The New York Times.
The attack has provoked alarm and outrage from the community of public health officials and workers whose efforts have been maligned and politicized. They argue that the shooting was a manifestation of false information that has surrounded the vaccine and animosity directed at the agency. .
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The post Gunman in Deadly C.D.C. Shooting Fixated on Covid Vaccine, Officials Say appeared first on New York Times.
