US doctor kills apartments manager after long-running dispute over mould, police say

Police have identified the 46-year-old man who was killed after a gunman opened fire in Washington DC.

James Stewart was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, while four others who were injured were rushed to local hospitals for treatment. One of the injured is in a critical condition, police said.

The shooting began on Thursday morning local time inside a gym in an apartment building in the Logan Circle neighbourhood, which is about a mile (1.6km) north of the White House.

Police said the suspect, identified as 55-year-old Matt Wade Lambert, barricaded himself in one of the apartments, and later died of self-inflicted gunshot wound.

While the suspect was barricaded, "he did fire through the door at officers at least on two occasions", Carroll said.

Negotiators had been on the phone with the suspect when they heard a gunshot and he stopped communicating with them, according to Carroll.

Officers forced their way into the apartment and saw the suspect had what appeared to be a "self-inflicted gunshot wound", he said.

Carroll added that police "believe there was a fire that was set", which has been contained.

Authorities are still working to understand the exact timeline, suspect's motivation, and other details of the incident.

"We believe there was some sort of a conflict with the apartment building, but we don't have much more than that," Carroll said.

Authorities recovered three firearms from Lambert's apartment. He was a registered gun owner, police said.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called it a "senseless act of gun violence" and said the White House had been briefed.

A BBC producer who lives in the building where the shooting happened, Jonathan Csapo, said a fire alarm went off. Then, as he came out of a fire escape, he heard gunshots very close by.

"I could see the smoke, I could see the flash. We just all started running. That was our first instinct," he said.

"We immediately ran and took cover behind a barricade, a little brick structure just near the building."

Csapo said he was then taken back inside, to a safe room, by a building manager.

"And then everybody started screaming," he said.

Michael Carney told the Washington Sun he was on a treadmill at the Vida Fitness gym when the shooting started.

He says he heard "one pop" which he assumed was an exercise ball bursting before seeing a victim on the floor who had been shot.

"Everyone was kind of just hiding behind planters and stuff," he said, adding a fire alarm was pulled.

Once outside of the gym, Carney says he heard five or 10 shots that seemed to be coming from a nearby alley.

Another witness told the Washington Sun that she heard "an enormous, loud thing" in the fitness centre and more shots outside the gym after being evacuated.

"I thought something had crashed or fallen," she said. "I didn't know it was a gunshot until later."

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