ATLANTA, Aug 9, (AP): A man opened fire outside the headquarters of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday, leaving bullet marks in windows across the sprawling campus and killing a police officer before he was found dead in a nearby building, authorities said. The attack, which unfolded near neighboring Emory University, prompted a massive law enforcement response to one of the nation’s most prominent public health institutions, but no one else was reported to be injured.

At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said in a post on X. Images shared by employees showed multiple agency buildings with bullet-pocked windows, underscoring the breadth of the damage to a site where thousands of scientists and staff work on critical disease research. The gunman was found on the second floor of a building across the street from the CDC campus and died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.

He added that "we do not know at this time whether that was from officers or if it was self-inflicted.” The shooter was 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 gunman’s motive is still unknown this early in the investigation, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said. Officer David Rose was killed in the gunfire, the DeKalb County Police Department said in a Facebook post. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement that Rose served in the Marine Corps and graduated from the DeKalb Police Academy in March, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson struck at the emotions of the loss. "This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,” Cochran-Johnson said. When the shooting began, staff at a nearby restaurant hunkered down and said they heard a string of gunshots.

"It sounded like fireworks going off, one right after the other,” said Brandy Giraldo, the chief operating officer of The General Muir restaurant. She then saw people running past her business. Two people paused to warn them of a shooter nearby. When Anurag Mehta and his wife heard about the shooting, they tried to get to their 3-year-old son in a preschool near the CDC, but they were unable to approach.