A suspect accused of repeatedly firing a gun near Emory University and fatally wounding a law enforcement officer is dead, officials said.
Authorities confirmed a DeKalb County police officer died but did not release a name.
The incident, which began late Friday, prompted a lockdown of the campus and the nearby Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emory’s shelter-in-place order was lifted at 6:34 p.m.
Few details were immediately released, but a post on X from the school’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response alerted students and staff of an “active shooter” at the Emory Point CVS just after 5 p.m. A later post from Emory College stated the shooter was on campus near Emory Point.
Those nearby were directed to run, hide and fight.
Emory Point is a mixed-use development where students often rent apartments. Clifton Road divides Emory Point from several university buildings and the CDC.
Clifton Road from Briarcliff Road to Haygood Drive is shut down, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Here are our live updates as the incident unfolded today:
DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said it is a "dark day" for her county after an officer was killed while responding to an active shooter situation near Emory University and the CDC on Friday.
“This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,” she said. “There is a mother and a father, as well as siblings, who also share in this traumatic loss.”
The DeKalb County police officer who responded to the shooting near Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dead.
"It is with profound sadness that we announce the loss of the life of one of our very own DeKalb County police officers," Interim Chief Greg Padrick said during a news conference near Emory University Hospital around 8:40 a.m.
The officer's name was not released.
He was the fourth Georgia law enforcement member killed in the line of duty this year. Georgia is now third in the nation for officer deaths behind California with 10 and Texas with five, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page that tracks law enforcement deaths.
The last DeKalb officer to die on the job was Sgt. Daniel Mobley, who was struck by a vehicle on Jan. 2, 2021. Mobley, a 22-year veteran of the department, was hit by a car while responding to a crash involving another DeKalb officer. He was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital but did not survive. Mobley was 44.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees are no longer under lockdown at the Roybal campus, according to an alert issued by the agency.
Law enforcement cleared the building after windows were shattered by bullets, authorities said.
Sony St. Clair was driving an Emory University shuttle down Clifton Road when he saw a man sprinting.
“I was like ‘Why are you running?’ and the next thing I know, I was by the CVS and the whole shooting happened, and I drove so fast,” he said.
St. Clair said he could smell the sharp scent of gunpowder. For a moment, he thought he’d been hit, and he checked his body for bullets. Then he slammed on the gas.
A little further down Clifton Road, Christopher Rolette-Mosley, from Laurel, Maryland, was passing through the area on the way to visit his mother when he got swept up in a line of police cars racing down Briarcliff Road.
“It breaks my heart in a city like this, which is ironically known for human rights and civil rights, to see this -- an active shooter,” he said, standing outside his car. “At some point our politicians gotta lower the rhetoric and realize we gotta do something about gun control for the sake of our nation.”
Four people went to a hospital after the incident for symptoms related to stress and anxiety, Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.
"They were not injured in the shooting," he said.
The GBI will be leading the investigation into Friday's incident, officials said.
The state agency is working alongside the FBI, the Atlanta Police Department and the DeKalb County Police Department.
After the critically injured DeKalb County police officer was located at the scene, additional responding officers could still hear gunfire from inside a CVS located at Emory Point, Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.
"Officers moved quickly to attempt to find the shooter and to neutralize the threat to the community," Schierbaum said.
The shooter was found on the second floor of the CVS. Schierbaum said he had been struck by gunfire but could not say if it was from an officer or self-inflicted.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said mass shootings "should not become the norm" after Friday's incident and a shooting that injured five soldiers earlier this week at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia.
DeKalb County police confirmed that the officer who was critically injured during the active shooter incident Friday was responding to the threat.
Interim Chief Gregory Padrick will provide an update on the officer later Friday evening.
A DeKalb County police officer was critically injured during the incident near Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that began shortly before 5 p.m., Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference around 7:45 p.m.
Schierbaum explained that the officer, who was not publicly identified, was found by police who responded to the scene after the gunfire began.
No other details on the officer's condition have been provided, but Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said his family and law enforcement officers are at Emory Hospital.
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