DC gym shooter referenced Luigi Mangione in interview with journalist 1 year before mass shooting

Matt Lambert, the former emergency room physician and health care technology executive identified as the gunman, spoke with Michael Brice-Saddler in a series of interviews between November and December of 2025 about his legal dispute with the Metropole Condominium Association and the building’s property manager. At the time, Brice-Saddler worked for The Washington Post. However, the piece was abandoned when he was laid off in early 2026.

The journalist, now working for The Washington Sun, said Lambert had reached out to him in late 2025, pitching a story on how his million-dollar penthouse was experiencing multiple issues, rendering it unlivable.

Lambert said the dispute started over severe water leaks and black mold and had morphed into “psychological warfare” between Lambert, building manager James Stuart, the management company EJF Real Estate Services and their insurance defense attorneys. In Thursday’s shooting, Stuart was fatally shot by Lambert inside the VIDA Fitness Center located on the ground floor of the building. Four others were shot in the vicinity.

Brice-Saddler wrote, “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.”

Lambert was said to have made an “offhand reference” to Mangione during a December visit with a neighbor in which Lambert was criticizing the condo association’s legal strategy. He made a reference to the writings left on the ammunition, which read “delay, deny, depose.”

Lambert said, “What are they called? Delay, deny, defend … the Luigi three?”

Lambert bought the top-floor unit in 2016 for $1.1 million but had placed the penthouse on the market with plans to relocate to New York. He said that the legal battle had left him stuck in DC.

He said it began after a building facade rehabilitation that ran from April 2023 to August 2024, during which water began seeping into his unit, leaving him with cracks, peeling paint, and mold. He eventually paid $12,000 out of his own pocket in November 2024 to strip the apartment. He sued the Metropole Condominium Association in D.C. Superior Court in March 2025, with the association losing a bid to have the case thrown out last year.

During a visit to Lambert’s unit, one resident said, “You never get a call back from James.”

Lambert replied that knew Stuart’s daily routine that included working out at the Vida Fitness downstairs. “If you want to see the building manager,” Lambert said, “he comes in the gym about 8 o’clock.”