one person is dead after a shooting at vida fitness in logan circle. here's what police have said, and what they haven't.
Photo: Logan Circle in Washington, D.C., from above, for illustration. Carol M. Highsmith, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
via Washington Blade, CBS News and NBC News
The calls started just before 8 a.m. Thursday: shots fired inside a gym on the 1500 block of 15th Street NW. By the time it was over, one person was dead inside VIDA Fitness in Logan Circle, four more had been shot in and around it, and the man police say did it was dead in an apartment seven floors up.
Interim D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said officers were on scene within 30 seconds. One of the four wounded is in critical condition and three have injuries that are not life-threatening, CBS News reported. Not all of them were inside the gym: Carroll said the victims included members of a construction crew across the street and a person in the lobby or alley outside.
what police say happened
The suspect, who police describe as a white man and a member of the gym, retreated into the apartment building above VIDA and barricaded himself in a seventh-floor unit, Carroll said. He fired through the door at officers twice. Negotiators talked with him for more than an hour. While on the phone with them, he shot himself, and officers who forced their way in found him wounded; police later confirmed he died. A fire was also set inside the building at some point, and sprinklers put it out.
"This lone gunman has been contained," Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters, according to the Washington Blade. Police know the man's identity and have not released it. The person killed has not been named.
what we know about a motive
Less than the internet thinks, and it is worth saying that plainly. The Advocate describes VIDA as gay-owned, and the Blade notes it is known around town as one of Washington's "gay gyms." But nothing police have said so far suggests anyone was targeted for who they are. The one thread Carroll offered is that the suspect had a conflict with the apartment building's homeowners association. A neighbor told CBS News the man was "very disgruntled with the building's management" over a water problem in his unit.
After we first wrote this, D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto told NBC Washington in a live interview that the gunman went into VIDA and targeted someone with whom he was "in active litigation," the Washington Blade reported. NBC Washington has also published a name for the suspect, citing police sources. Police have not confirmed it publicly, so we are not printing it yet.
Posts claiming to show the gunman's writings are circulating on X. We have not verified them and are not linking to them. If police say anything that changes the picture, we will update this story.
VIDA president Aaron Moore told members by email, "Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this incident." The Logan Circle location is closed until further notice. Police are asking anyone who saw something, including people who ran from the area, to call (202) 727-9099.
