DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Metro Atlanta is mourning an officer killed in the line of duty.
Saturday will mark exactly one year since a gunman shot and killed DeKalb County police officer David Rose during a targeted attack against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One year later, some repairs from the attack have yet to be made, a CDC spokesperson confirmed to Channel 2 Action News.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot reported from DeKalb County outside the CDC with how that federal agency is remembering Rose.
Friday morning, family, law enforcement and CDC workers paid their respects at a new memorial plaque for Rose.
The private driveway to the CDC has been renamed Officer David Rose Parkway.
One year ago Saturday, Rose died running toward the gunfire aimed at the CDC and its workers.
Channel 2 Action News was at the service attended by employees, law enforcement and CDC leadership, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Moments after the service, Rose’s mother stepped over to the new plaque the CDC dedicated to her son’s memory.
“I’m still hurt and grieving my son, but I’m honored, very honored that he gave his life for this cause,” Deveane Atkinson Burnett said.
Investigators say Patrick Joseph White opened fire, riddling the CDC with bullets, as many as 85 rounds striking the building.
White later took his own life.
“David made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Yolanda Jacobs, the president of CDC workers union.
Jacobs praised Rose’s sacrifice but also criticized the CDC’s actions since then.
She says that a year later, several windows still show the bullet holes.
Jacobs says agency leadership hasn’t informed them about security upgrades, and she complained about a lack of morale inside the agency.
“It’s not just the public, the media that’s not being informed. Employees who have to actually go onto those campuses don’t always have all the information that they could be given to help them feel a little bit more secure going onto campus,” she said.
Channel 2 Action News talked with a CDC spokesperson Friday who confirmed some damaged windows remain a year later.
But she says the windows needed to replace them have to be specially made, and that takes time.
She couldn’t provide any information about possible security upgrades.
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