Police investigate fatal gym shooting that left two men dead

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — On Sunday afternoon, several members of Onelife Fitness on Hooff’s Run Drive in Alexandria attempted to get in to work out, but the doors were locked and a sign on the door said the gym would remain closed for the time being after police told us two men were shot there around 4 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Tommy Dow, who comes to the gym almost every day. “I was there yesterday morning.”

Dow showed up at Onelife Fitness unaware of the shooting, as did Brian Lemons.

“I was walking by to see if I could get in a quick workout and a guy drove by and told me the gym was closed, two people had been shot. It’s kind of crazy,” said Lemons, who lives nearby.

According to Alexandria police, one of the two men killed was the suspected shooter.

“It was a shot, shot, shot,” said a man who was in the gym at the time of the shooting. He did not want to be identified.

He says the shooting occurred in what Onelife Fitness calls a stretching room.

“It’s a little cordoned off,” the witness said. “No doors, but it’s a pretty spacious area.”

He told WUSA9 that there were about 45 people in the gym at the time and most, like him, couldn’t see what was happening.

“And then people just ran from that direction. There was a woman who ran out, completely hysterical and almost in tears,” said the witness. “She ran straight from that room to the front door.”

That’s when he says he knew something was wrong and followed the crowd outside, where he collected his thoughts.

“There was no commotion before that. There were no signs that anything was going wrong. It was just a normal day,” the witness said. “I think this seemed to be a very targeted, concentrated attack on someone who happened to be in the gym, and it was bad luck for everyone else who was there.”

Those who were not there but come here often cannot believe that something like this happened in their second home.

“As far as actual murders go, it’s very rare in this area,” Lemons said. “It’s a shock to the entire gym community here.”

Alexandria police investigators are still trying to determine whether the two men killed knew each other.

They tell WUSA9 that this is the first gun death in Alexandria in 2024.

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