ATLANTA (AP) — A man who fired over 180 shots at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s headquarters accessed his father’s firearms by breaking into a secured safe, aiming to protest against COVID-19 vaccinations, officials reported on Tuesday.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director, Chris Hosey, stated that documents found at Patrick Joseph White’s residence shared his dissatisfaction with the COVID-19 vaccines. White had been living with his parents at the time.

White, 30, had written about wanting to make “the public aware of his discontent with the vaccine,” Hosey added.

White had expressed suicidal thoughts recently, prompting law enforcement to be alerted weeks before the shooting. He ultimately died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after tragically taking the life of DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose.

This incident highlights the threats faced by public health officials nationwide as negative sentiment toward vaccines surged during the pandemic. Misleading statements about vaccine safety by figures like former President Donald Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have further fueled these sentiments.

Calling for ‘rational, evidence-based discourse’

Dr. Susan Monarez addressed CDC employees in a meeting on Tuesday, marking her first official week as CDC director. She emphasized, “Misinformation is perilous. It jeopardizes not only health but trust among us and those we seek to guide.”

According to a transcript obtained by the AP, she urged, “Rebuilding trust is a collective effort. Trust connects us. In tough times, our response should be based on reason and empathy, founded in evidence-based conversations. This is our path to leadership.”

White’s parents have fully cooperated with the investigation of their son, who had no known criminal history, Hosey said Tuesday. With a search warrant at their home in the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, authorities recovered written documents and electronic devices that are being analyzed. Investigators also recovered five firearms, including a gun of his father’s that he used in the attack, Hosey said.

White did not have a key to the gun safe, Hosey said: “He broke into it.”

CDC security guards stopped White from driving into the campus on Friday before he parked near a pharmacy across the street and opened fire from a sidewalk. The bullets pierced “blast-resistant” windows across the campus, pinning employees down during the barrage.

The GBI said more than 500 shell casings were recovered from the scene, underscoring the level of firepower involved. Authorities haven’t said how many shots were fired by White and how many by police. The GBI said forensic testing was still pending.

It could have been much worse

In the aftermath, CDC officials are assessing security and encouraging staff to alert authorities to any new threats, including those based on misinformation regarding the CDC and its vaccine work.

“We’ve not seen an uptick, although any rhetoric that suggests or leads to violence is something we take very seriously.” said FBI Special Agent Paul Brown, who leads the agency’s Atlanta division.

Jeff Williams, who oversees safety at the CDC, told employees there is “no information suggesting additional threats currently.”

“This is a targeted attack on the CDC related to COVID-19,” Williams said. “All indications are that this was an isolated event involving one individual.”

The fact that CDC’s security turned him away “prevented what I can only imagine to be a lot of casualties,” Williams said.

“Nearly 100 children at the childcare center were reunited with their parents at the end of the night,” he said. “The protections we have in place did an excellent job.”

RFK Jr.’s responses to the attack

Kennedy toured the CDC campus on Monday, accompanied by Monarez. “No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” Kennedy said in a statement Saturday, without addressing the potential impact of anti-vaccine rhetoric.

Kennedy refused to directly answer when asked during an interview with Scripps News on Monday what message he had for CDC employees who are worried about the culture of misinformation and skepticism around vaccines.

Although law enforcement officials have made clear the shooter was targeting the public health agency over the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy said in the interview that not enough is known about his motives. He described political violence as “wrong,” but went on to criticize the agency’s pandemic response.

“The government was overreaching in its efforts to persuade the public to get vaccinated and they were saying things that are not always true,” Kennedy said.

Some unionized CDC employees called for more protections. Some others who recently left amid widespread layoffs squarely blamed Kennedy.

Years of false rhetoric about vaccines was bound to “take a toll on people’s mental health,” and “leads to violence,” said Tim Young, a CDC employee who retired in April.

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Contributors include Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, and Amanda Seitz in Washington, D.C.