Doctor kills one, wounds four at Washington gym before fatal standoff over condo dispute

A Washington, D.C., physician shot and killed one person and wounded four others at a gym in the Logan Circle neighborhood Thursday morning before barricading himself in his apartment above the building and fatally shooting himself after a standoff with police, according to multiple law enforcement officials.

The gunman was identified by law enforcement sources as Dr. Matt Lambert, a physician who lived in a seventh-floor unit of the Metropole, a roughly 99-unit condominium building that houses the Vida Fitness gym where the shooting began. Interim Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffrey Carroll said one person was killed and four others were wounded, one critically, in addition to the gunman's death. Police had not publicly identified any of the victims as of Thursday afternoon.

The attack unfolded shortly before 8 a.m. in and around the gym, which sits on the ground floor of the building at 15th and P Streets NW, about a mile north of the White House. Officers arrived within roughly 30 seconds of the first call, according to CBS News, but the gunman had already fled into an attached parking garage and up into the residential tower, where he barricaded himself on the seventh floor.

A standoff that lasted nearly two hours

Gunfire and police activity continued for the better part of two hours, with the gunman firing through his apartment door at officers at least twice. A fire broke out inside the building at some point during the standoff; sprinklers activated and contained it before firefighters needed to intervene further. Carroll said investigators did not know for sure who had set the fire, but that they would "kind of expect" it was the suspect.

Negotiators spoke with Lambert by phone for about an hour before he shot himself while still on the line, Carroll said. When officers forced entry into the apartment after hearing the gunshot, they found him dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted wound. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order and closed nearby streets, asking residents to avoid the area; it was later lifted.

Because of the location's proximity to the White House complex, several federal agencies responded alongside city police, including the FBI's Washington field office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' Washington bureau, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Park Police. The Secret Service said in a statement that no Secret Service protectees were involved, and officials described the federal response as a function of the shooting's location rather than any connection to the White House.

A dispute over mold and water damage

Lambert had been in a monthslong conflict with the Metropole Condominium Association over alleged mold and water intrusion in the seventh-floor penthouse he bought for $1.095 million in 2016, according to NBC4 Washington. Court records cited by the station show he had been unable to use the unit since 2024 because of the water problems, and that the litigation was still pending, with mediation scheduled for next March. He had sued the association, alleging the problems cost him more than $100,000, and had aired his grievances publicly through an X account titled "Of Mice and Mold" that catalogued complaints about the building's contractors and management for months.

Minutes before the first calls about gunfire came in, the same account posted a message along with screenshots of a building inspection report, according to the Washington Blade.

"My manifesto is an engineering report."

D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto, who chairs the council's Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety and represents the ward that includes Logan Circle, said in a live television interview that investigators believe the gunman was targeting someone he was in active litigation with, though police have not confirmed that account or named the person killed.

Who was affected

Witnesses described chaotic scenes inside and around the gym as the shooting began. "There was no way of getting out of the gym other than going past that scene," said gym member Jennifer Christine, who called the morning "horrific." Another member, Max Smith, said he was "very shaken up" and had not expected anything like it. A neighbor in the building, Jonathan Csapo, said Lambert had invited other residents into his unit to show them the water damage he blamed on management. "He wanted more attention, and he was getting increasingly frustrated that people weren't listening to him," Csapo said of Lambert's escalating dispute with the building.

• One person killed; identity not yet released by police
• Four others wounded, one in critical condition as of Thursday afternoon
• The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a standoff lasting nearly two hours
• Litigation between Lambert and his condo association was still pending, with mediation scheduled for next March

Vida Fitness emailed members Thursday morning saying the Logan Circle location would remain closed until further notice. The Metropolitan Police Department, one of the ten largest local police agencies in the country, is leading the investigation along with the assisting federal agencies.

What's next

Investigators said they had not yet determined a formal motive and were continuing to examine how much the condominium dispute drove the attack. Police have not said whether the person killed was connected to the litigation, and that detail remains unconfirmed, according to the Washington Blade, which also reported that the gym is informally known as one of the city's "gay gyms" and that investigators had not said whether bias played any role.

The Metropole Condominium Association and EJF, a contractor named in Lambert's lawsuit, have denied causing the damage he alleged, telling CBS News that any problems were caused by third parties beyond their control. It remained unclear Thursday whether that civil case would continue now that Lambert has died. The Metropolitan Police Department said its investigation into the shooting, including a final determination of motive and the handling of the fire inside the building, was ongoing.