Doctor shoots and kills gym manager in Washington DC, then turns gun on himself
Five people were shot in Washington DC's Logan Circle neighbourhood after a man opened fire in a gym and from his condo patio. The suspect, a 55-year-old doctor, later killed himself.
Doctor kills building manager at DC gym, shoots four more from penthouse patio before taking own life
A 55-year-old doctor fatally shot a gym manager and wounded four other people in Washington DC's Logan Circle neighbourhood on Thursday morning before turning the gun on himself, according to abc7ny.com.
The gunman, identified as Matt Lambert, opened fire at the VIDA Fitness centre on 15th Street Northwest at around 8 a.m. — roughly one mile north of the White House — before retreating to his seventh-floor penthouse apartment, from which he shot four additional victims from the patio.
James Stuart, 46, the building manager of the residential complex, was killed at the gym. Witnesses described a sudden and chaotic scene.
"Within seconds there was a man who fell to the ground, and a pool of blood came out," said James Spellman, who was among approximately 50 people at the gym when the shooting began. "One gym member rushed to help him. He was instantly dead. He had been shot in the neck."
Anthony Mirones, who was in the gym's cardio area, said he initially heard a loud bang and assumed something had fallen. A fire alarm then sounded, sending people rushing for the exits. "The people in cardio had to step over the body," Mirones said.
Nearby resident Ryan Dubicki, an employee of the Associated Press, said he heard roughly five shots from his apartment. "They were really spread out so I thought it was construction," he said. Shortly afterward, he added, police flooded the street.
Lambert was subsequently barricaded inside his apartment, speaking by phone with police negotiators, according to Jeffery Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Carroll confirmed that Lambert shot himself while still inside the unit.
Court records show Lambert had been in a prolonged dispute with building management over mold, moisture and water damage in his penthouse. He filed a lawsuit last year alleging the problems had made the unit effectively uninhabitable since 2024, tracing the damage to work carried out on the building's exterior by a contractor. Mediation had been scheduled for March next year. Lambert also appeared to have documented his grievances publicly on an X account titled OfMiceandMold, sharing photographs and an engineering report.
Carroll confirmed the connection between the dispute and the attack. "There has been an ongoing dispute between the suspect and building management," he said. "We believe it's related to that."
Large sections of the block were cordoned off as law enforcement SWAT teams took positions on the roof and at ground level. Schools in the area were placed under lockdown. The surrounding streets, which include St. Luke's Episcopal Church, residences and a Whole Foods supermarket, were evacuated.
Mayor Muriel Bowser described herself as "devastated" by the deaths and called the event a "senseless act of gun violence."
Logan Circle has experienced other violent incidents in recent months. In early August 2025, a former member of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency was assaulted in the neighbourhood by a group of teenagers who attempted to carjack him and a woman accompanying him. Days later, Trump imposed direct federal control over Washington DC, deploying hundreds of National Guard members to address crime in the city — a deployment that remains in effect.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)