Crimeupdated 14m ago2 min read
Sixth Victim Found After Matt Wade Lambert Shooting at VIDA Fitness in Washington, D.C.
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Matt Lambert, 55, identified as gunman, killed one, wounded five others, then died by suicide. The attack occurred at VIDA Fitness in Logan Circle, leaving one dead and five injured.
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Lambert kills, then dies
Police in Washington, D.C. said a sixth person was shot on Thursday morning, bringing the toll to one person killed and five wounded in an attack they believe was linked to a dispute over maintenance issues in a condo building. The Metropolitan Police Department said investigators found the sixth victim, a woman, after officers initially located five other victims, and police said she was conscious and breathing with a “non-life-threatening gunshot graze wound.” Police said the shooting started just before 8am local time at a VIDA Fitness gym in the city’s Logan Circle neighbourhood, about a mile north of the White House.
Police said Matt Wade Lambert, a 55-year-old doctor, shot James Stuart inside the gym on the ground floor before going back to his apartment on the seventh floor and firing on people below from his patio. Police said Lambert barricaded himself inside his apartment and died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after tactical officers forced their way in.
Negotiators, firearms, and fire
Interim police chief Jeffery Carroll said the shootings unfolded in less than five minutes and that Lambert spent most of the conversation with negotiators talking about the dispute with building management. Carroll said negotiators heard a single gunshot and that Lambert then stopped talking, before tactical officers forced entry and found Lambert dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said Lambert fired at least twice through the door while officers were outside, and police said he also broke the gas line connected to his fireplace and started a fire that the building’s sprinkler system contained.
Police said inside the apartment, they found a shotgun, a rifle, and a handgun, all of which had been used in the shooting, and police said none of the firearms were registered to him in Washington, D.C. CBS News said police initially said there were five victims, not counting the shooter, but later confirmed a sixth person was struck by a gunshot.
Motive dispute and lawsuit
Police said they believed Lambert targeted Stuart while Stuart was doing his morning workout at the gym, and police said they believed the attack was motivated by a dispute over maintenance issues in a condo building. Court records cited by The Associated Press, as described by Al Jazeera, said Lambert had filed a lawsuit alleging he had not been able to enjoy his penthouse since 2024 because of mould, moisture and water problems that began after work had been done on the building’s exterior. Al Jazeera said Lambert’s lawyer, Joel Braithwaite, told reporters that the condo where Lambert had lived since 2017 looked like “a warzone” and that Lambert had spent more than $300,000 on the lawsuit.
NBC News said Braithwaite described the legal dispute and home maintenance cost the suspect $300,000, and NBC News said Braithwaite said Lambert considered the D.C. condo “his prized possession.” Police said Lambert’s conversation with negotiators centered on homeowners associations and challenges with that, and police said they were still investigating the circumstances in which the sixth victim was shot.