Local
Gunman Kills One, Injures Four at Logan Circle Gym Before Taking His Own Life, Police Say
A gunman opened fire inside a VIDA Fitness gym in Washington, D.C.'s Logan Circle on Thursday morning, killing one person and wounding four others before barricading himself in a nearby apartment and dying of a self-inflicted gunshot, according to the interim police chief.
WASHINGTON â A gunman opened fire inside a fitness gym in the Logan Circle neighborhood Thursday morning, killing one person and wounding four others before barricading himself in an adjoining apartment building and taking his own life, the District's interim police chief said.
The first emergency call came at 8 a.m. from people inside the VIDA Fitness gym, located about a mile north of the White House, according to Jeff Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Officers and other emergency responders arrived within 30 seconds, Carroll told reporters at a morning briefing.
Responders found one adult man who had been shot. Additional calls continued to stream in reporting more gunfire and more victims as the gunman left the gym and barricaded himself on the seventh floor of an apartment building that adjoins the VIDA location, Carroll said.
For roughly an hour, police tried to persuade the gunman to surrender peacefully. While officers were engaging with the suspect, they heard a single gunshot, according to Carroll. Officers entered the apartment and found the gunman dead from a self-inflicted wound.
Authorities have not released the names of the person killed or the four people injured, and Carroll said it remains unclear whether the gunman knew any of the victims. He said the investigation is continuing.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the scene, and the surrounding blocks of Logan Circle â a dense, mixed-use neighborhood of apartments, restaurants and shops â were cordoned off for hours as the situation unfolded.
The shooting adds to a grim toll of gun violence in the nation's capital and comes amid continuing debate over firearm access and public safety. Community members in Logan Circle, a neighborhood that has drawn young professionals and families in recent years, were left grappling with the rare daytime attack in a place many residents treat as a daily routine.
Police have asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Metropolitan Police Department. The department has not said whether it will release additional details, including a possible motive, as the investigation proceeds.