Posts misidentify CDC headquarters shooter

"Emory University's active shooter, student Silas Kruger, is TOAST, taken out by the good guys in Atlanta!" says an August 8, 2025 post on X, which claimed to show a photo of the supposed suspect.

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Screenshot from X taken August 11, 2025

Similar posts spread across X and other platforms, including Facebook, after a gunman killed a police officer and fired multiple rounds from outside the CDC campus near Emory University on August 8, 2025. The shooting took place on a Friday evening.

But the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) identified the suspect as Patrick Joseph White, 30, from Kennesaw (archived here).

The gunman was found dead inside a CVS drugstore with a gunshot wound, which GBI Director Chris Hosey said in an August 12 press conference was self-inflicted (archived here).

Hosey said White had no known criminal history but had recently verbalized suicidal thoughts. Documents investigators found at White's residence indicated that he was "discontent with the Covid-19 vaccinations," Hosey added.

Reached by AFP, the GBI referred to its website and X account, where it shared information about the case.

The agency also provided AFP with a photo of White from his driver's license -- confirming the suspect is a different person from Silas Kruger.

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This undated handout image shows Patrick Joseph White's driver's license photo provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and obtained on August 12, 2025 (Georgia Bureau of Investigation / HANDOUT)

Online harassment campaign

Kruger is the son of Murray Kruger, a contractor and social media influencer from Saskatchewan, Canada with more than 2.9 million followers on Instagram. He appears in several of his father's posts (archived here).

"Our son, Silas, lives with us in Saskatchewan, Canada and was here in Canada at work all day on Friday, and had nothing to do with the shooting," his mother, Natalie Kruger, told AFP in an August 11 email.

"He is also not an Emory University student and just graduated from high school here in Canada less than two months ago."

Natalie Kruger blamed the incident on "internet trolls" she said have repeatedly targeted her family since her son met them online in 2023. She said the family has contacted Canadian and US authorities to try to stop the harassment.

"Once they found out his full name, they quickly discovered who my husband Murray is too," she told AFP. "They have doxxed us, swatted us, made multiple social media accounts impersonating Silas and other family members."

"It has been disheartening to see so many people that were so quick to spread such obviously unverified information, on top of the harassment we've already been dealing with," she added.

On X, Murray Kruger replied to several false posts to request that they be taken down (archived here, here, here, here and here). 

"This is False News," he wrote in reply to the post that said his son was "TOAST" (archived here). "This is our son and we have been victims of a Discord troll group for the last 3 years."

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Screenshot from X taken August 12, 2025

The father also dispelled the rumors on camera in a video posted by an account called "The Exposure" (archived here).

"Silas, our son, was not involved with anything down in Georgia at the tragedy at the Emory University," he said in the video, which he reposted to his account. "We are in Canada. Silas was at work all day today. He's as surprised as I am."

AFP reached out to Emory University for additional comment, but no response was forthcoming.

AFP has previously debunked past hoaxes misidentifying other shooters here.