A gunman has reportedly shot five people at and outside a gym in Washington’s Logan Circle neighbourhood, about a mile north of the White House, on Thursday morning, police said.
UPDATE – 11:00 AM ET: The suspected gunman has been confirmed dead by local officials and law enforcement.
UPDATE – 10:40 AM ET: One person died at the scene and four others were shot, one of them critically, Interim Metropolitan Police Chief J.W. Carroll said, stressing it was “very preliminary information.” The other three have “non-life-threatening injuries.” Officers forced entry into the suspect’s seventh-floor apartment after hearing a gunshot, and police said he had shot himself. “The suspect is contained,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said, adding: “The White House has been briefed.”
The chief said the suspect, a white male who has not been named, appeared to have barricaded himself in his own residence and was a member of the VIDA gym. “We do know there was a conflict between him and the homeowners association of that building, but at this point we’re continuing to look into that,” Carroll said.
The person killed was shot inside the gym, Carroll said. The other victims included members of a construction crew across the street and a person in the lobby or alley outside. The suspect “did fire through the door at officers at least on two occasions while he was barricaded inside,” the chief said, and shot himself while on the phone with negotiators, Carroll said. “I’m not going to get into a specific location but he did shoot himself,” Carroll said. He had a handgun “at one point in time,” but “we don’t know if there’s other weapons that are involved,” he said.
Police “believe there was a fire that was set,” which has since been put out, and officers were still “clearing the actual unit,” believed to be owned by the suspect, Carroll said, calling the situation “still fluid.” VIDA said its Logan Circle gym was closed until further notice.
Mayor Muriel Bowser called the shooting a “senseless act of gun violence,” saying “it’s not typical to have an active shooter that guns down people in this city,” and that law enforcement had “all responded in a way that’s professional, that got this situation under control.”
Original report continues below.
Metropolitan Police Department officers were on the scene of an “ACTIVE SHOOTING in the area of 15th and P Street, Northwest” at 8:23 AM ET, and said the department’s Emergency Response Team was there. “AVOID THE AREA,” the department said. The first reports had put the number of people shot at four; by 9 AM ET, reports citing police put the number at five.
Councilmember Brooke Pinto said: “Shootings at and outside Vida fitness this morning in Logan Circle. Multiple people shot. Do not go to this area. Police looking for suspect.”
A federal law-enforcement official had said the suspect was barricaded in an apartment above the gym on 15th Street. Gunshots continued to be heard from the building for the better part of two hours, while officers negotiated with the suspect. As of 9:25 AM ET, police reported a barricade situation in the 1500 block of 15th Street Northwest and told people in the 15th and P area to shelter in place. Streets at 15th and P, 14th and P, and 15th and Q were closed. Among the agencies on the scene were the Metropolitan Police, Metro Transit Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Secret Service and Homeland Security.
The gym, VIDA Fitness, is just off that intersection and is popular with the city’s gay community.
This is a developing story.
