The GBI will be joined by Atlanta police, DeKalb police, Emory University police, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Authorities released more information after a shooter opened fire on Centers for Disease Control buildings near Emory University in Atlanta.

The CDC, which tracks outbreaks of illness in the US, played a central role during the Covid pandemic and has been heavily-criticised by vaccine sceptics. Officer Rose was a former Marine who had served in Afghanistan.

Though law enforcement has not officially announced a motive behind the attack, for many in public health, the shooting seemed to vindicate their long-running fears that the backlash to their work during the coronavirus pandemic could turn deadly.

A former U.S. surgeon general on Sunday said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “failed” in his response to the shootings that took place on Friday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta Monday in the wake of a deadly shooting near the agency’s Roybal Campus that left both the suspected gunman and a police officer dead.