CDC Launches New Violence Prevention Information Resource

The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control's Injury Center is launching a new web resource that provides violence prevention data from 16 funded states.

The new on-line tool, WISQARS(tm) NVDRS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System National Violent Death Reporting System) provides data on violent deaths from the National Violent Death Reporting System so that it is easily accessible to researchers, public health practitioners, decision makers and the media. The new tool is a component of the currently available interactive WISQARS(tm) (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, pronounced "whiskers") tool which provides customized reports of injury-related data.

WISQARS(tm) NVDRS links information from multiple sources-death certificates, law enforcement reports, medical examiner and coroner reports and crime laboratories-to more fully understand the circumstances of violent deaths. It includes data on homicides, suicides, legal intervention deaths, unintentional firearm deaths, and deaths of undetermined intent.

Additionally, the new tool also provides data on important public health problems like intimate partner homicides, suicides among youth, and suicides among persons with military service and infant/child deaths. The system also links information across victims to better understand events where there may be more than one victim (e.g. a school or workplace shooting) or where homicides may be followed by suicides.

Users will be able to customize their search based on a variety of data fields including: demographics, victim/suspect relationships, method of injury, and precipitating circumstances.

WISQARS(tm) NVDRS is now available online as of November 18.

You can access WISQARS(tm) NVDRS online, at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/.

Currently, CDC receives Congressional funding to support data collection from 16 states. The CDC Foundation and the Joyce Foundation provided support for the development of the WISQARS(tm) NVDRS module.

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Georgia Front Page

Two Men Sentenced for Making False Bomb Threat to CDC

QUANTAVIOUS GREENE, 28, of Jackson, Georgia, and ELIJAH CHANDLER, 21, of College Park, were sentenced today (July 16, 2008) by United States District Judge Orinda D. Evans on charges of aiding and abetting one another in using the telephone to call in a false bomb threat to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and later making false statements to FBI agents regarding the call.

United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the case, “Bomb threats, whether real or false, cause untold costs to the community in terms of law enforcement response, lost working hours, and fear. Anyone who may be inclined to make a bomb threat on a whim should understand that we take those threats very seriously no matter the motivation. One of these defendants wanted to get off work early. Now he and his codefendant are going to federal prison.”

GREENE was sentenced to 4 months in federal prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. GREENE pleaded guilty to the charges on November 15, 2007. CHANDLER was sentenced to 6 months in federal prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. CHANDLER pleaded guilty to the charges on January 25, 2008.

According to United States Attorney Nahmias and the information presented in court: On April 14, 2006, the CDC Office in Atlanta received a telephone call from a blocked telephone number. The caller stated that a bomb had been placed in the building and identified himself using the name of a former employee of the CDC who had been fired. DeKalb County Police responded and searched the building, but did not find any explosive devices. On the date the call was made, ELIJAH CHANDLER was employed by the CDC as a contract worker. Through a lengthy investigation, FBI agents determined that the former employee whose name was given by the caller did not make the call. Ultimately, the investigation led to GREENE and CHANDLER, both of whom at first gave false statements to the agents about their knowledge of the telephone call and telephone number used. The false statements further impeded the investigation. GREENE later confessed to making the call, stating that CHANDLER urged him to do so so that CHANDLER could leave work early.

This case was investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Assistant United States Attorney Katherine Monahan Hoffer prosecuted the case.