ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities identified a suspect from suburban Atlanta as the individual responsible for a shooting at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which resulted in the death of a police officer and caused widespread alarm at both the health facility and nearby Emory University.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that the shooter, who struck on Friday, was 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White from Kennesaw, Georgia. During the incident, Officer David Rose of the DeKalb County Police Department was fatally wounded while responding to the scene. Although no other individuals were physically injured, four people sought medical attention for anxiety-related symptoms. Many CDC employees sought safety within their offices as bullets were fired at the agency’s headquarters.

According to the police, White fired shots from across the street at the CDC campus, creating large bullet holes in windows and scattering bullet casings on the sidewalk outside a CVS pharmacy. This attack triggered an extensive response from law enforcement to the prominent public health institution.

CDC Director Susan Monarez reported in a post on X that at least four CDC buildings sustained hits, with numerous visible impacts from outside the campus. Photographs shared by employees depicted windows marked by bullets across multiple buildings where thousands of staff conduct vital disease research.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. expressed his sorrow over the incident, commenting on Saturday, “We are heartbroken by the tragic shooting at the CDC’s Atlanta campus, which claimed the life of Officer David Rose.”

His statement continued, “Our public health colleagues are understandably shaken today. Violence should never be part of the work to safeguard others’ health.”

Hundreds of CDC staffers sheltered in place during the shooting and many couldn’t leave for hours afterward on Friday as investigators interviewed witnesses and gathered evidence. The staff was told to work from home or take leave on Monday.

CDC workers already faced uncertain futures due to funding cuts, layoffs and political disputes over their agency’s mission. “Save the CDC” signs are common in some Atlanta-area neighborhoods, and a group of laid-off employees has been demanding action from elected officials to push back against the Trump administration’s cuts.

This shooting was the “physical embodiment of the narrative that has taken over, attacking science, and attacking our federal workers,” said Sarah Boim, a former CDC communications staffer who was fired this year during wave of terminations.

“It’s devastating,” said Boim, who helped to start the advocacy organization for the former employees called Fired But Fighting. “When I saw the picture of those windows having been struck by bullets I really lost it,” she said, her voice cracking.

Without naming White Friday night, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens described him as a “known person that may have, some interest in certain things.” But Dickens did not name a motive.

A neighbor of White told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that White spoke with her multiple times about his distrust of COVID-19 vaccines.

Nancy Hoalst, who lives in same cul-de-sac as White’s family, said he was friendly and “seemed like a good guy” doing yardwork and walking dogs for neighbors. But Hoalst said White would bring up vaccines even in unrelated conversations.

“He was very unsettled and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people.” Hoalst told the Atlanta newspaper. “He emphatically believed that.”

But Hoalst said she never believed White would be violent: “I had no idea he thought he would take it out on the CDC.”

A voicemail left at a phone number listed for White’s family in public records was not immediately returned Saturday morning.

The gunman died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Friday, adding: “we do not know at this time whether that was from officers or if it was self-inflicted.”

He had been armed with a long gun, and authorities recovered three other firearms at the scene, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The CVS remained closed Saturday morning, with one bullet hole in its front door and two more in a rear door. A lone bouquet was placed outside the building.

Rose, 33, was a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and graduated from the police academy in March and “quickly earned the respect of his colleagues for his dedication, courage and professionalism,” DeKalb County said in a statement.

“This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,” DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said.

Outside the complex that includes the CVS and four floors of apartments above the store, some people came to witness what had happened.

Sam Atkins, who lives in Stone Mountain, said gun violence feels like “a fact of life” now: “This is an everyday thing that happens here in Georgia.”

The newly-confirmed Monarez hailed the police response and called off in-person work on Monday, telling staff in a Friday email that the shooting brought “fear, anger and worry to all of us.”

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed.