A gunman killed a building manager and wounded four other people at a gym in Washington’s Logan Circle neighbourhood on Thursday morning, before barricading himself in his apartment above the gym and shooting himself, police said.
The shooting began shortly before 8 a.m. at VIDA Fitness on 15th Street NW, near the intersection with P Street, about a mile from the White House. Metropolitan Police Department officers reached the scene within 30 seconds of the first call, interim Chief Jeffery Carroll told reporters.
Police identified the man killed as James Stuart, 46, who managed the Metropole condominium building that houses the gym. Carroll said the gunman, 55-year-old Matt Wade Lambert, a resident of the building, shot Stuart with a handgun inside the gym, where both men were members.
Lambert then returned to his seventh-floor apartment and opened fire with a rifle from the balcony, wounding four people on the street below — two men and two women, including construction workers at a site across the road. One of the four was in a critical condition in hospital; the other three had injuries that were not life-threatening.
Officers surrounded the building and Lambert barricaded himself inside his apartment, firing twice at police through the door. Carroll said Lambert also broke a gas line in the home and started a fire, which was contained by the building’s sprinkler system. During the standoff Lambert shot himself, and officers who forced their way in found him dead. Police recovered three firearms from the apartment — a handgun, a rifle and a shotgun.
Investigators believe the shooting was connected to a long-running dispute between Lambert and the building’s homeowners association. Court records show Lambert, an emergency physician, sued the Metropole condominium association in March 2025, alleging that work on the building’s facade caused water to leak into his penthouse apartment and resulted in more than $100,000 in damage. Police said they believed Stuart was deliberately targeted, and were still working to establish whether the other four victims were shot at random.
VIDA Fitness said its Logan Circle facility would remain closed until further notice.
Sources: Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/heavily-armed-police-respond-washington-dc-active-shooter-incident-2026-11-12/); USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2026/11/12/dc-active-shooting-logan-circle-gym/92739486007/)
