The suspect later shot himself inside a nearby seventh-floor apartment where he had been speaking by phone to police negotiators, said Jeffery Carroll, interim chief with the Metropolitan Police Department.
The shootings occurred around 8 a.m. in Logan Circle, about a mile north of the White House. Much of the block on 15th Street Northwest was cordoned off as police urged people to avoid the area, which includes a VIDA fitness center, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, residences and a Whole Foods supermarket. Schools were locked down.
Law enforcement SWAT teams and other officers had their guns drawn on the roof of an apartment building and on the ground below.
Carroll said one man died at the gym and another victim was in critical condition.
The suspect's self-inflicted death was confirmed by a law enforcement official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation into what happened and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
James Spellman, who was at the gym, said there were about 50 people there when the shooting began.
“Within seconds there was a man who fell to the ground, and a pool of blood came out," he said. "One gym member rushed to help him. He was instantly dead. He had been shot in the neck.”
Anthony Mirones was in the gym's cardio area when he heard a loud bang and thought something fell off the wall. He said someone was trying to help the wounded man but then a fire alarm went off and many people ran.
“The people in cardio had to step over the body,” Mirones said.
Another witness, Ryan Dubicki, said he was in his nearby apartment around the same time when he “heard about five bangs.”
“They were really spread out so I thought it was construction,” said Dubicki, an AP employee on the elections team. A short time later "there were cops everywhere.”
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it sent agents to the scene to help. And the FBI said its Washington field office was helping local police with the investigation.
The Logan Circle neighborhood has seen violence before. In early August 2025, a onetime member of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency was assaulted early on a Sunday morning in the neighborhood by a group of teenagers attempting to carjack him and a woman, authorities said.
Days later, Trump ordered hundreds of National Guard troops to patrol the city. That order has resulted in a major reduction in violence in the nation's capitol.
