Victim of Washington DC Gym Shooting Identified as Building Manager James Stuart
Police have named the man killed in a shooting at a Washington DC gym as 46-year-old building manager James Stuart, in an attack investigators believe was linked to a long-running housing dispute.
By Vanessa Lopez ·
The man fatally shot at a gym in Washington DC has been identified by police as James Stuart, a 46-year-old building manager from northwest Washington.
Metropolitan Police Department interim Chief Jeffery Carroll said Stuart was killed shortly before 8am on Thursday at the VIDA Fitness gym.
The suspected gunman, named by officials as Matt Lambert, a doctor, wounded four other people at the gym before barricading himself inside his apartment and shooting himself, according to law enforcement.
Chief Carroll said investigators believe the attack was connected to a dispute between the suspect and the homeowners association management. "We do know that there has been an ongoing dispute between the suspect in this case and the homeowners association management regarding maintenance issues, mould and the like," he said. "There was a civil case that he filed against them. So we believe that it's related to that."
One of the four wounded remains in a critical condition, while the other three have injuries that are not life-threatening, Chief Carroll said.
Lambert is understood to have owned and lived in his apartment since 2016. The property has an estimated value of more than $1m. An account on X believed to belong to him posted about problems with his apartment building 200 times over 13 months, and a "manifesto" was published on the account shortly after the shooting.
James Spellman, who was inside the gym when the shooting began, said around 50 people were present. "Within seconds there was a man who fell to the ground, and a pool of blood came out," he said. "One gym member rushed to help him. He was instantly dead. He had been shot in the neck."
Police officers arrived within seconds of the first emergency call, Chief Carroll said. While clearing a nearby residential building, they heard gunfire from the seventh floor, where the suspect had locked himself in his own apartment.
During the standoff, negotiators heard a gunshot while speaking to the suspect on the phone. "He did fire through the door at officers, at least on two occasions, while he was barricaded inside," Chief Carroll told a news conference. When officers forced entry, the suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser praised the rapid law enforcement response to what she called a "senseless act of gun violence" and said the White House had been briefed on the incident.
