Metropolitan Police Department officials identified 55-year-old emergency physician Dr. Matt Lambert as the gunman in the Washington, D.C. shooting on Thursday morning that killed condominium manager James Stuart and wounded four passersby in Logan Circle. Police said Lambert died by suicide inside his seventh-floor apartment after an hour-long standoff with officers.
Interim D.C. Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the attack began just before 8 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 12, when Matt Wade Lambert entered the Vida Fitness gym near the intersection of 15th and P streets NW and fatally shot Stuart, 46, with a handgun. Lambert lived in the Metropole condominium building directly above the gym, where Stuart worked as a property manager.
After the gym shooting, Lambert returned to his seventh-floor unit and opened fire from his balcony with a rifle, hitting four adults on the street below, according to The Washington Post. Carroll said the surviving victims are two men and two women. One victim remains hospitalized in critical condition, while the other three suffered injuries that are not considered life-threatening.
“This whole incident probably took place within less than five minutes,” Carroll said during a Thursday briefing. Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived within 30 seconds of the initial dispatch, and emergency response team negotiators spoke with Lambert for more than an hour while he remained barricaded inside his unit.
What happened during the D.C. shooting standoff
While barricaded on the seventh floor, Lambert broke a gas line, used gasoline to start a fire that damaged the Metropole building, and fired a shotgun at police officers through his apartment door, according to FOX 5 DC. “He did fire through the door at officers, at least on two occasions while he was barricaded inside,” Carroll said.
When negotiators heard a single gunshot and Lambert stopped responding, officers forced entry into the unit and pronounced him dead at the scene. Police recovered a handgun, a rifle, and a shotgun from the apartment, none of which were registered to Lambert in Washington, D.C. The Logan Circle location of Vida Fitness remains closed until further notice, and residents dealt with fire and gas-line damage in the building following the standoff.
Charelle Ferguson, another building manager at the condominium complex, told The Washington Post that she spoke to Lambert by phone shortly after hearing gunshots Thursday morning. Ferguson said Lambert told her he was tired of water damage and mold in his apartment before confessing that he had shot five people.
The condominium lawsuit Involving Matt Lambert
Police and court records show Lambert had been locked in a long-running legal dispute with the Metropole Condominium Association over water damage, mold, and exterior wall defects in his unit. Court filings state that mediation in the lawsuit was scheduled for March 2027.
An X account linked to Lambert, @OfMiceandMold, had posted engineering reports, photographs, and legal filings related to the apartment’s condition. On Wednesday, the day before the shooting, the account posted: “Two years of living in luxury (and the start of 6 months with no shower, dryer, HVAC, and cooking).”
According to his LinkedIn profile and state medical board records cited by CBS News and MedPage Today, Lambert was the founder and chief executive of a healthcare and technology consultancy called MLEM. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Marshall University, completed his residency at West Virginia University, and held active medical licenses in West Virginia and Montana with no disciplinary history.
Joel Braithwaite, the attorney representing Lambert in the condominium lawsuit, told reporters on Thursday evening that his client had spent at least $300,000 on the litigation and that Thursday was the anniversary of Lambert burying his mother, according to The Guardian. “I can’t tell you how surprised I am because the person I knew as a client is someone who is in the business of healing people,” Braithwaite said. “I don’t know how all of those things coalesce, but, unfortunately, this is a choice that I hope that my clients would never make.”
Responses from city officials and colleagues
Stuart had worked for 13 years at EJF Real Estate Services, the property management firm for the Metropole condominiums. In a company statement, EJF President Scott Burka said the firm was devastated by the death of a respected and beloved colleague in a senseless act of violence.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the attack a “senseless act of gun violence,” confirmed that the White House had been briefed, and credited police for arriving within 30 seconds. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George described the shooting as “horrifying” and offered “sincere condolences to all the victims, their families, and DC residents living through this fear.” D.C. Ward 2 Council Member Brooke Pinto also confirmed the fire damage to the Metropole building and expressed sorrow over the killing.
On Thursday evening, congregants from nearby First Baptist Church walked to the intersection of 15th and P streets NW holding candles and roses for a vigil. Reading from a prayer sheet, local resident Edwin Vela, who had been running past the intersection when gunfire broke out that morning, said: “We lament that a place meant for living became a place of death.”
Metropolitan Police Department detectives and federal law enforcement partners are continuing to investigate how and when Lambert obtained the three unregistered firearms recovered from his apartment.