Just before 8 a.m. on Nov. 12, D.C. police received a call about a shooting inside the VIDA Fitness gym at 1517 15th St. NW, with officers arriving within about 30 seconds.

The gunman, later identified as 55-year-old Dr. Matt Wade Lambert, fatally shot James Stuart, a 46-year-old D.C. resident who managed the building above the gym.

Lambert then ran upstairs to his private balcony and opened fire on people at ground level, wounding four — two men and two women — including members of a construction crew across the street, according to CBS News.

Police said the entire attack unfolded within about five minutes, and one of the four hospitalized victims remained in critical condition.

What makes the shooting so startling is its apparent motive: not random violence, but a property dispute. According to CBS News, Lambert had spent roughly $300,000 in legal and engineering fees on the fight, and his attorney Joel Braithwaite said his client felt his complaints alone were ignored.

Neighbors told CBS News he aired grievances on X, at board meetings, and even invited people to his unit to see the damage.

After the shootings, Lambert barricaded himself in his seventh-floor apartment, where police said he had set a fire, damaged the gas line in his fireplace and kept gasoline and other flammable materials.

WJLA reports negotiators spoke with him by phone for more than an hour, mostly about his apartment issues, before officers heard a gunshot and found him dead of a self-inflicted wound.

Police recovered a shotgun, a rifle and a handgun, and according to CBS News said none were registered to him in D.C.

The block — home to a Whole Foods, restaurants and apartments in addition to the gym — is about a mile north of the White House, which drew a massive response from the FBI, ATF, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals, Homeland Security and the National Guard, with agencies saying they responded due to proximity.

Witnesses described frantic escapes: one gym-goer told NBC4 Washington she ran out mid-workout and sheltered in a nearby deli, while a manager there said his staff pulled runners inside and locked the doors.

Mayor Muriel Bowser called it 'a senseless act of gun violence' but pushed back on framing it as typical of D.C. crime, and said the White House had been briefed.

VIDA Fitness said its Logan Circle location will remain closed until further notice, and streets in the area were still closed as the investigation continued Thursday.

Interim Police Chief Jeffrey Carroll said investigators are still examining the conflict between Lambert and the building's homeowners association.

Councilmember Brooke Pinto called the killing of the building manager over a dispute that 'should be worked out reasonably' sad and senseless, and Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George pledged the city would stand with the Logan Circle community.

Meanwhile, Lambert's lawyer said the emergency-room physician of two decades had been in good spirits about his lawsuit and was set to start a new job on Monday.