Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said DeKalb County officials would soon provide an update on the DeKalb County police officer who was shot.
The DeKalb County CEO and the DeKalb County police chief “are at the hospital right now meeting and talking with individuals, the families and other officers, that were involved having to respond to this emergency situation,” Dickens said at the news conference.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the 92 children who are in a daycare on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus are all safe.
“I’m a parent as well. I know your uncertainty and your fear and concern has been high,” Dickens said today at a news conference. “We wanted to come give you this message that all the children are safe and that we will be making sure that you get reunited with them as soon as possible.”
Officials are working with the CDC to set up a reunification location in the area for children and their parents, he added.
Atlanta Police found the shooter on the second floor of a CVS and he had been struck by gunfire, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters this evening.
“We do not know at this time if it was an officer’s or if it was self-inflicted,” he said.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said that no civilians were shot during the active shooter incident on the campus of Emory University.
He also confirmed that the shooter is deceased.
There were 92 children at the daycare on the campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and they are safe, he added.
As the shooting broke out near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kristin Coles’s wife was supposed to be picking up their toddler at the employee day care on the corner. Instead, Coles got a text from her wife saying she had heard gunshots outside the day care, she told CNN affiliate WSB-TV.
Wracked with anxiety as her wife and son went into “lockdown” inside The Clifton School, Coles headed to the scene. When police stopped her in her car, she said she walked about a mile to get closer to the day care – only to be stopped again.
“Everyone appears to be safe. I just need to see them,” Coles told WSB-TV. “I just need to hold him and be with him and know that he’s OK and see him in person.”
She said her wife is in the day care, but has not been able to see their son, who is in a different classroom. The Clifton School serves families who are employees of the CDC, Emory and Children’s Hospital of Atlanta.
“It’s very scary. Our kids should be able to go to school. People should be able to go about their day-to-day without a threat to their lives,” Coles said.
After speaking with the suspected shooter’s family members, police are operating under the theory that he was either sick or believed that he was sick and blamed the illness on the Covid-19 vaccine, a law enforcement official told CNN.
Multiple rounds were fired “we believe at law enforcement and potentially the CDC,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference, but he added they are still investigating the situation.
The officer who was shot while responding to the active shooter incident on Emory University campus has died, according to a law enforcement official.
The Atlanta Police Department had earlier announced one officer was injured during the course of the response.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at today’s news conference that CDC employees have “had a tough go of it in the past year” after an active shooter incident prompted a lockdown Friday. Sources have told CNN that the shooter appeared to target the CDC.
“My heart goes out to you,” the mayor said. “We are with you. We stand with you, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that we bring resolve to the situation.”
He referenced the “uncertainty” around CDC staff’s employment following massive workforce cuts at federal health agencies. The agency has lost nearly a quarter of its staff since January. The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2026 would slash the agency’s funding by more than half. And under a proposed reorganization, the CDC stands to lose more of its programs: Some are set to be moved to a new Administration for a Healthy America while others, such as the National Center for Chronic Disease and Health Promotion, would be eliminated altogether.
The alleged shooter’s father called law enforcement before the shooting to report that he believed his son was suicidal, a law enforcement official told CNN.
It was not immediately clear how much time had elapsed between the call and the shooting.
Editor’s note: If you are in the US and you or a loved one have contemplated suicide, call the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to connect with a trained counselor. If you’re a first responder, call the CopLine at 1-800-267-5463.
Outside the US, a worldwide directory of resources and international hotlines is provided by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, and you can turn to Befrienders Worldwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta campus continues to be on lockdown, a CDC source familiar with the situation told CNN.
Atlanta Police have said the shooter is dead and the lockdown on the Emory University campus is lifted.
A CDC employee told CNN that he saw a man approach the steps of a building at the agency’s campus, put a backpack down, pull out a rifle, and shoot at the building.
The employee heard many shots fired and called 911, he told CNN.
The CDC building is adjacent to the Emory University campus in Atlanta.
Officials in Atlanta will hold a news conference on the shooting today that occurred at Emory University to provide updates any minute now. CNN is on the scene.
Emory University student Aditya Vyas, who lives near the scene of the shooting, says the neighborhood is considered by some to be “one of the safest places in Atlanta,” in part because of its proximity to the federal Centers for Disease Control facility.
Vyas told CNN affiliate WSB he was returning to his apartment from the grocery store when he was blocked by a wall of law enforcement on Clifton Road, which leads to the Emory Point community where he lives.
“You can’t do anything except feel very nervous and very scared because all of these friends, all of the people I know at Emory are all in there somewhere,” he said, gesturing toward the blocked-off area of campus.
His roommate and several friends live in the area, and Vyas told WSB he had been unable to return home for almost an hour due to law enforcement activity.
Makia Jones, 24, who works at Skyn Culture spa, told CNN she was at the front desk when she saw a police officer shooting at a suspect around the corner from a CVS.
“It was kind of like a semiautomatic. I don’t really know guns,” she said, making the sound of rapid, repeated gunfire.
Makia Jones, spa employee
“And then I heard the Emory CDC siren go off, and then it was completely silent. After that, you heard like four to eight gunshots continuously, and then silence again.”
Skyn Culture is located in the Emory Point shopping plaza, which also houses the CVS.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is on the scene where the shooting took place, CNN has confirmed.
There was a single shooter involved who is now dead, Atlanta Police Department said on X.
“There is no ongoing threat to the Emory Campus or the surrounding neighborhood. The incident involved a single shooter, who is now deceased,” the post said. “One law enforcement official was injured in the course of the response.”
Police advised to still avoid the area as the investigation continues.
CNN Senior National Correspondent Ryan Young described a chaotic scene near Emory University, with a heavy presence of law enforcement officials and emergency personnel responding to an active shooter situation.
Young said parents have been trying to pick up their children from a day care in the area but have been unable to.
“They have not been able to reach them just yet,” he told CNN’s Phil Mattingly today.
Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr said in a post on X that he is “horrified by the news out of Emory University” and praying for their safety.
“We stand ready to assist our law enforcement partners with whatever they may need,” he said.
Sen. Raphael Warnock said in a post on X he is monitoring the situation, saying he is “devastated that our community is facing yet another tragedy of gun violence.”
Emory University’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response said in an update around 6:30 p.m. that there is still a “police emergency” on campus, around an hour and a half after first reporting an active shooter.
A shelter in place order has been lifted at the Emory University campus in Atlanta, Georgia, the school’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response said in a post on X.
The post comes around an hour and a half after the university first reported an active shooter on campus.
“A police emergency continues on the Emory Atlanta Campus at Emory Point,” reads the post. “Avoid the area. Shelter in place has been lifted.”
The entire campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on lockdown, a CDC source familiar with the situation told CNN.
The agency’s campus is near Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where an active shooter was reported.
