One Dead, Four Wounded in Washington, DC Shooting; Gunman Kills Himself

A gunman killed a man inside a Washington, DC, gym on Thursday morning and then fled, shooting four more people in a rampage that rattled Logan Circle, a popular neighborhood about a mile (1.6 kilometers) north of the White House, police said.

The suspect later shot himself inside a nearby seventh-floor apartment, where he had been speaking by phone with police negotiators, according to Jeffery Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. A law enforcement official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation, confirmed the self-inflicted death to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The shootings began around 8 a.m. Police cordoned off much of a block on 15th Street Northwest, an area that includes a VIDA fitness center, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, residences and a Whole Foods supermarket, and officers urged the public to avoid the area. Schools were locked down, while SWAT teams and other officers held their guns drawn on the roof of an apartment building and on the ground below.

Carroll said one man died at the gym and another victim was in critical condition.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was "devastated" by the loss of life in what she called a "senseless act of gun violence."

James Spellman, who was at the gym, said roughly 50 people were inside when the gunfire began. "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." Spellman said he and others dashed out of the gym, and that he heard about two shots fired inside and about five or six fired outside.

Anthony Mirones was in the gym's cardio area when he heard a loud bang and assumed something had fallen off the wall. He said someone tried to help the wounded man, but then a fire alarm went off and many people ran. "The people in cardio had to step over the body," Mirones said.

Ryan Dubicki, who was in his nearby apartment around the same time, said he "heard about five bangs." "They were really spread out so I thought it was construction," he said, adding that a short time later "there were cops everywhere."

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it sent agents to the scene to help, and the FBI said its Washington field office was assisting local police with the investigation.

The neighborhood has seen violence before. In early August 2025, a one-time member of US President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency was assaulted early on a Sunday morning in Logan Circle by a group of teenagers attempting to carjack him and a woman, authorities said. Days later, Trump fulfilled his threat to bypass local authority and imposed direct federal control over the city, sending in hundreds of National Guard members to reduce crime. That deployment remains in place.