Dressed in black with a mask on his face, Patrick Joseph White got out of a Toyota Scion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 8. He left the car in the street.
He had taken five of his father’s guns and made the 33-mile drive from his family’s Kennesaw-area home, arriving near the Emory University campus just before 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.
Then, he started shooting with what appeared to be an assault rifle.
There are still many unanswered questions about the shooting that terrorized the CDC campus and university community, with White killing a police officer before turning the gun on himself. The 911 records and dispatch reports obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution offer a glimpse into the roughly 36 minutes White terrorized the area, firing upward of 500 shots.
4:50 p.m.: The first 911 call came in at 4:50 p.m. reporting White was seen with weapons. Minutes later, at 5:01 p.m., the university sent out an “active shooter” alert. Calls to 911 had begun.
“There’s an active shooter. Please, there are no police here yet,” one man told the 911 operator in a call released this week.
5:01: “RUN, HIDE, FIGHT. Avoid the area. Shelter in place,” Emory officials said in a campus alert.
5:02: A witness told a dispatcher that a police officer, later identified as DeKalb County Officer David Rose, had been shot. Investigators later determined White shot Rose.
The gunshots continued. Shot after shot rang out, forcing some in the area to run and others to hide, including a woman locked inside the restroom of the CVS pharmacy. The CDC, university and hospital were placed on lockdown, along with 92 children in a day care center.
5:26: White, 30, was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, according to investigators. His body was found on the second floor of the building housing the CVS.
White’s path while shooting is unknown. But nearly 500 rounds were fired, with close to 200 hitting the CDC buildings, the GBI said in the days after the shooting. An Emory police officer fired shots, the GBI said. But the majority came from White’s arsenal. The investigation is ongoing, the agency told the AJC on Friday.
Credit: GBI
Credit: GBI
White believed the COVID-19 vaccine was the cause of his back pain, according to Cobb County police reports. Three times, including weeks before the CDC shooting, officers had been called to his family’s home because White had threatened suicide.
He left similar written messages before leaving for Emory, investigators later said. White took rifles, a shotgun and a handgun that belonged to his father, police said. The exact types of weapons he used have not been released.
White’s father, Kenneth, was among those placing 911 calls Friday evening. Kenneth White suspected his son was involved, he told operators during three calls. He was right.
By 6 p.m., officers began to clear every building on the CDC campus, a process that took several hours and required employees to stay put. Shortly before 6:30, a DeKalb police spokesperson said the shooting scene was no longer active. Emory lifted the lockdown.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Just before 8 p.m., Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and police Chief Darin Schierbaum spoke publicly, offering preliminary details. About an hour later, DeKalb’s interim police chief, Greg Padrick, delivered a somber update: An officer had died. Late Friday, the officer was identified as Rose.
Friday evening, investigators combed the CDC buildings making sure there was no further danger. It wasn’t until 10 p.m. that anxious parents were reunited with children in the day care.
By Saturday morning, the GBI identified White as the shooter.
— Staff writer Jozsef Papp contributed to this article.
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