Law enforcement officers remember police officer who died after CDC shooting

DUNWOODY, Ga. (AP) — DeKalb County Police Sgt. Tre Jones knew he would pick David Rose to lead his police academy class on day one, a decision that usually takes four to six weeks to make.

What he didn’t know about were Rose’s swift moves on the basketball court. But he would soon see them in action at a local church’s court while Rose’s wife and kids cheered him on from the bleachers.

Weeks after he was fatally shot in the Aug. 8 shooting at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, law enforcement colleagues described Rose as a courageous leader who put his family above all else at a memorial service Friday at a church north of Atlanta.

“Without question, he was the finest I ever had the pleasure of training,” Jones said. “He was unshakable. His attitude toward the process never wavered. From day one to graduation, he remained mentally tough, respectful, and fully committed. He welcomed adversity not with resistance, but with that trademark grin.”

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from DeKalb County and the surrounding region filled the church. CDC employees also attended. Local officials and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp attended. His young daughter leaned on his wife’s shoulder with blue bows in her hair and a shirt that said, “My daddy is my hero.”

Patrick Joseph White fired more than 180 shots with a long gun at the CDC headquarters. Investigators learned White wanted to make public his disdain for vaccines.

The shooting reflects the dangers public health leaders have been experiencing around the country since anti-vaccine vitriol spread after the pandemic. Such rhetoric has been amplified as President Donald Trump’s Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has repeatedly made false and misleading statements about the safety of immunizations.

Rose, a 33-year-old former U.S. Marine, was shot by White when responding to the shooting. He graduated from the police academy in March.

Attendees throughout the vast sanctuary sniffled as a video played showing photos of Rose with his family and from when he was a child. Interspersed were photos of him training to be a police officer and in military attire.

There were three things Rose regularly talked about, Jones said: Food, his motorcycle and his wife and children, the latter with a wide grin.

DeKalb County police officer Tahlia Cruz said Rose smiled as she recalled the time they played rapper GloRilla too loudly in a van.

She added Rose always encouraged people to “raise their game.”

“Off the field, he was quiet, humble and never stopped up smiling,” Cruz said. “He had a way of putting others first, often sacrificing his own comfort so someone else could have theirs. And when you needed guidance, he was the one to turn to.”

When he wasn’t with his family, Cruz said Rose found peace cruising down open roads on his motorcycle.

DeKalb interim police Chief Gregory Padrick read Rose’s words from his police graduation, where he called on his colleagues to be the person “who runs toward danger when others run away.”

“We wanted to serve,” Rose had said. “We wanted to be part of something greater than ourselves.”

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.