Police on Thursday identified the gunman who killed one person and wounded four others at a gym in Washington's Logan Circle neighborhood as 55-year-old Matt Wade Lambert, a doctor who lived in the building and had a long-running dispute with its condo association.
Interim Police Chief Jeffery W. Carroll said at an afternoon news conference that Lambert shot 46-year-old James Stuart, the building's manager, in the ground-floor Vida Fitness gym on Thursday morning, then returned to his seventh-floor apartment and shot four more people from his patio — two men and two women. One victim remains in critical condition; the other three suffered injuries that are not life-threatening.
Lambert used three firearms — a handgun, a rifle and a shotgun — all of which were found in his apartment, Carroll said. None of the weapons was registered in the District, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating.
After barricading himself inside, Lambert broke a gas line in his home and started a fire, Carroll said. He fired through the door at officers who tried to engage him. Police negotiators spoke with him by phone for more than an hour, during which he complained about the building's homeowners association, before officers heard a gunshot, forced entry and found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The shooting began shortly before 8 a.m. on Thursday near 15th and P streets NW, about a mile from the White House. The Metropolitan Police Department's first alert went out at 8:23 a.m., and a large response including the FBI and the Secret Service cordoned off the area and ordered residents to shelter in place.
Lambert had been represented by attorney Joel Braithwaite in ongoing litigation with the building's condo association over accusations of mold in his unit. Police have not established a formal motive. The standoff ended late Thursday morning, when police declared the scene safe and began leaving the area around 11 a.m.
