A year before a D.C. gym became a crime scene, the gunman shared a dark joke with a reporter that now reads very differently.
Matt Lambert, the former emergency room physician and health care technology executive identified as the gunman in Thursday morning's shooting in the city's Logan Circle neighborhood, spoke with journalist Michael Brice-Saddler in a series of interviews in late 2025. The shooting left one man dead and four others wounded, and police say Lambert later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his condominium.
The interviews centered on Lambert's legal dispute with the Metropole Condominium Association and the building's property manager. At the time, Brice-Saddler worked for The Washington Post, but the piece was abandoned when he was laid off in early 2026.
The journalist, now with The Washington Sun, said Lambert had reached out in late 2025 to pitch a story about his million-dollar penthouse. Lambert claimed the unit had developed so many problems that it had become unlivable.
According to Lambert, the dispute began over severe water leaks and black mold. Over time, he said, it morphed into "psychological warfare" between himself, building manager James Stuart, the management company EJF Real Estate Services and their insurance defense attorneys.
On Thursday, Stuart was shot and killed inside the VIDA Fitness center on the ground floor of the building. Four other people were shot in the vicinity.
Brice-Saddler later reflected on his conversations with the gunman. "While at no point in the reporting process did Lambert give any indication he would resort to violence, he did frequently use intense, combative language and at one point, his frustration veered into what at the time felt like dark humor," he wrote.
That moment came during a December visit with a neighbor, as Lambert criticized the condo association's legal strategy. He made an "offhand reference" to Luigi Mangione, the man at the center of the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The remark invoked the words "delay, deny, depose" found written on the ammunition in that case. "What are they called? Delay, deny, defend the Luigi three?" Lambert said.
Lambert bought the top-floor unit in 2016 for $1.1 million. He had placed the penthouse on the market with plans to move to New York, but he said the legal battle left him stuck in Washington.
He traced the trouble to a facade rehabilitation of the building that ran from April 2023 to August 2024. During that work, he said, water seeped into his unit, leaving cracks, peeling paint and mold.
Lambert eventually paid $12,000 out of his own pocket in November 2024 to strip the apartment. He sued the condominium association in D.C. Superior Court in March 2025, and the association lost a bid to have the case thrown out last year.
Another exchange recounted by the journalist has taken on a chilling significance. During a visit to Lambert's unit, one resident complained, "You never get a call back from James."
Lambert replied that he knew Stuart's daily routine, which included working out at the gym downstairs. "If you want to see the building manager," Lambert said, "he comes in the gym about 8 o'clock."
Police say surveillance video captured Lambert walking up behind Stuart around 8 a.m. Thursday and opening fire without a word. The details have left neighbors, and the journalist who once listened to his grievances, grappling with warning signs that seemed like venting at the time.
The account was first highlighted by The Post Millennial. It adds a troubling new layer to a case that investigators say was rooted in a long-running and bitter feud over a single apartment.
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