Chaos by the CDC – What People Saw and Felt When the Shots Rang Out
Hot day in Atlanta. The kind where the pavement feels like it’s cooking your shoes. Students hanging around Emory, a few folks walking past the CDC complex. Nothing unusual.
Then — bang. Not one, a few. Sharp, hard sounds that don’t belong in that kind of quiet. Some people didn’t even know what it was at first. Then the shouting started.
Soon police cars were screaming in from every direction. Clifton Road was blocked off. You could see people pressed up against building walls, just trying to get out of the way.
The name that came out later was Patrick White. Neighbors say he’d been… different. Used to be talkative. Friendly enough. Then he got stuck on the vaccine thing — COVID shots, side effects, how it ruined his head. Told some people it made him so low he thought about ending it. A few brushed it off. You hear wild stuff sometimes.
This wasn’t that. One person dead. Others hurt and all of it just steps from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) where this shooting happened
The lockdown orders came fast. At Emory, blinds went down, doors locked. People in labs and classrooms sitting on the floor, waiting for a text that said it was over. Sirens didn’t stop for at least an hour.
Police still aren’t saying if he picked that spot for a reason. Could’ve been anyone there. Could’ve been someone specific. They’re digging through his posts, his messages, trying to see the line between the man his neighbors knew and the one who pulled the trigger.
By evening, the sun was low but the tape was still up. A couple of cops leaning against their cars. The road will open again, sure, but if you were here, the place doesn’t look the same anymore. And maybe it won’t.
