DC condo shooting: doctor kills building manager and himself, six wounded
A 55-year-old doctor opened fire at a Washington DC gym and from his apartment balcony, killing the building manager and wounding six. He later died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Doctor opens fire in Washington DC over condo dispute, one dead and six injured
A 55-year-old doctor shot and killed a building manager and wounded six others in Washington DC on Thursday morning before turning the gun on himself, aljazeera.com reports. Police believe the attack was rooted in a long-running dispute over maintenance conditions at the suspect's condominium building.
The Metropolitan Police Department identified the suspect as Matt Wade Lambert. The victim who died, James Stuart, 46, was the manager of the building where Lambert lived. Stuart was shot inside a VIDA Fitness gym on the ground floor of the building, in the Logan Circle neighbourhood, roughly a mile north of the White House. The shooting began just before 8am local time (13:00 GMT).
After shooting Stuart, Lambert returned to his seventh-floor apartment and opened fire on people below from his patio. Five others were struck — some of whom had been working at a construction site across the street. A sixth victim, a woman, was later identified by investigators. She had self-treated a non-life-threatening graze wound and remained conscious and breathing. Two women and two men were transported to hospital, all conscious and breathing. Police had not detailed the circumstances in which the sixth victim was hit.
The entire sequence of shootings unfolded in under five minutes, according to interim police chief Jeffery Carroll.
Lambert subsequently barricaded himself inside his apartment and spoke to police negotiators by phone. During that standoff, he fired at least twice through the door while officers were positioned outside, though no officers were injured. He also ruptured the gas line connected to his fireplace and started a fire, which the building's sprinkler system contained.
Carroll told reporters that most of Lambert's conversation with negotiators centred on his grievances with building management. "Most of the conversation was about the homeowners associations and challenges with that," Carroll said. Negotiators then heard a single gunshot, after which Lambert stopped responding. When tactical officers forced entry into the apartment, they found him dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Inside the apartment, police recovered a shotgun, a rifle and a handgun, all of which had been used during the attack.
Court records cited by The Associated Press show Lambert had filed a civil lawsuit alleging he had been unable to properly use his penthouse since 2024 due to mould, moisture and water damage stemming from exterior construction work on the building. The case was still active at the time of the shooting. Lambert appeared to have documented the dispute publicly, including photographs and an engineering report, on an X account named ofMiceandMold.
His lawyer, Joel Braithwaite, told reporters Thursday that the condo, where Lambert had lived since 2017, resembled "a warzone" and that his client had spent more than $300,000 pursuing the lawsuit.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)