Investigators say that the man who opened fire on the headquarters of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, killing a police officer, may have been opposed to Covid vaccinations. Officer David Rose, 33, who graduated from the police academy in March, died in hospital after he was wounded. No civilians were injured. Officials told US media on Saturday that they were looking into the theory that the suspect, Patrick Joseph White, 30, was ill, or thought he was ill from a Covid vaccine. White died in the incident. 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. DeKalb County official Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said: "This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father." Media reports suggested the gunman's father had called police on the day of the shooting, believing his son was suicidal. A neighbour of Whitetold the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionthat the suspect had mentioned to her repeatedly that he distrusted Covid-19 vaccines. Nancy Hoalst, who lives across the street from White's family in the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, told the newspaper: "He was very unsettled and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people. He emphatically believed that." A neighbour who spoke to CBS, the BBC's US partner, said that the suspect was very skinny and was adamant that the Covid vaccine made him sick. His "beliefs were core to who he became," she added. CDC Director Susan Monarez said the centre was "heartbroken" by the attack. "DeKalb County police, CDC security, and Emory University responded immediately and decisively, helping to prevent further harm to our staff and community," she wrote in a post on X. In a press briefing on Friday, police said they became aware of a report of an active shooter about 16:50 local time (20:50 GMT) that day near the CDC. Officers from multiple agencies responded. The CDC campus received a number of rounds of gunfire into its buildings. Police said they found the shooter "struck by gunfire" - but could not specify whether that was from law enforcement or self-inflicted. Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr issued a statement saying the agency was "deeply saddened" by the attack that claimed an officer's life. "We know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today. No-one should face violence while working to protect the health of others," said Kennedy. Kennedy has previously expressed doubts about the side effects of vaccines, especially Covid vaccines, and has been accused of spreading misinformation. Some former CDC employees who were fired as part of Elon Musk's campaign to shrink the government rejected Kennedy's statement. "Kennedy is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC's workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust," one ex-employee wrote,according to the Associated Press news agency. Another former CDC employee told the outlet that the shooting was the "physical embodiment of the narrative that has taken over, attacking science, and attacking our federal workers". Media outlets have reported that CDC employees have been asked to work remotely on Monday.