The doctor who gunned down his building manager at a luxury Washington DC condo made an eerie confession in the moments that followed.
Dr Matt Lambert, 55, fatally shot James Stuart, 46, in the back inside the Vida Fitness in Logan Circle at around 8am on Thursday. Four others were also left injured.
The gunshots were heard by Charelle Ferguson, a building manager for the Metropole condos, who told the Washington Post she then saw people screaming and running away as one bystander yelled: ‘Somebody was shot in the head.’
At that point, Ferguson said she ushered panicked residents into her office and began calling everyone she knew who lived there – including Lambert, who picked up at around 9am.
When she then asked whether he was OK, she said, the doctor replied that he was tired of the mold and water damage in the unit, which he said rendered it unlivable.
‘The only way people will pay attention, you have to do something,’ Ferguson remembered him saying.
He then confessed to shooting five people, including one of her co-workers, Ferguson said.
‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,’ she said. ‘I tried to calm myself down and get as much info from him as I could and keep him on the phone.’
Dr Matt Lambert, 55, gunned down his building manager at a luxury Washington DC condo on Thursday morning over ongoing disputes about the mold in his unit
James Stuart, 46, in the back inside the Vida Fitness in Logan Circle at around 8am. Images Via: James Stuart/Facebook
But Lambert had barricaded himself inside his penthouse apartment at 1515 15th Street, above the gym.
While inside, he set of the sprinkler system; started a fire; and complained on the phone to a neighbor, another property manager, and police negotiators about his feud with the building.
He also wounded four random people on the ground whom he fired on from his balcony, before eventually turning the gun on himself.
At least one of the injured is in critical condition, while three others suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Police forced themselves into the building, where Lambert reportedly shot at police twice through the door.
Negotiators spoke with him for roughly an hour through his apartment door before they heard a gunshot.
Once inside, authorities found Lambert with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
They also uncovered three guns – a pistol, shotgun, and rifle, none of which were registered to Lambert.
It has since been revealed Lambert had a long-running feud with Metropole Condominium Association, which operates the luxury residential tower on 15th Street near Logan Circle.
Lambert barricaded himself in an apartment after killing a man at a nearby gym and injuring four others
Local and federal law enforcement officers are pictured responding to the scene on Thursday
The shooting occurred less than a mile from the White House
He claimed in a lawsuit, and in great detail on his X account, that Metropole and its building contractors, EJF Real Estate Services, caused $290,000 in water damage and resulting mold during facade renovations.
Lambert’s last post, at 8.06am while he was believed to be holed up inside his apartment, read: ‘My manifesto is an engineering report.’
Attached was a screenshot of part of a report by CED Technologies that agreed with his claims, and what appeared to be a record of reported building issues.
Just one day before the shooting, Lambert also claimed on social media that the saga left him with ‘no shower, dryer, HVAC, and cooking’ for six months.
Another chilling post by Lambert predicted his shocking crime on April 28 in response to a complaint by another resident about the hot water not working.
‘If you’re looking for the building manager, I would check the gym,’ he wrote.
The inside of Lamber’s apartment in November 2024, the day he left the apartment and the walls and floors were ripped out to investigate the water damage and mold
The dismantling of the walls in Lambert’s apartment in a photo from November 2024 that he posted a day before the shooting
In an interview last December with then Washington Post reporter Michael Brice-Saddler, Lambert also stressed that the ongoing battle over the mold has ‘affected every part of my life – my sleep, dietary habits.’
He then went on to reference Sun Tzu’s Art of War, as the doctor said he goes ‘through every emotion every day on this.’
‘Do I keep fighting? Do I not fight,’ he asked, rhetorically. ‘And The Art of War talks about, you know, the battle’s won before it’s ever fought. It says if you’re going to commit, don’t half commit, fully commit.’
The interview came as Lambert sued the homeowner’s association over the black mold and other problems at his condo last year.
‘They’re trying to make me quit,’ he told Brice-Saddler, who wrote about the interview for the Washington Sun. ‘They’re trying to make me go broke.’
Police are pictured outside the VIDA Fitness gym, where Stuart was killed
National Guard members were seen on the a balcony of nearby building across from where the shooter was barricaded
Police are pictured escorting witnesses and residents back into the building following the rampage on Thursday
Lambert began documenting his feud with Metropole in October 2025, posting hundreds of photos, documents, and complaints.
His complaints were not confined to his apartment and the disputed over the water damage, but to anything wrong with the building and its operations.
Lambert’s lawsuit, filed in March 2025, claimed ‘suspected water intrusion, mold, significant moisture accumulation, and/or related damage’ was a direct result of facade work Metropole began in March 2023.
He claimed that before the work began, his apartment had ‘no significant water intrusion, mold, moldy smells, moisture accumulation, or related damage’.
Metropole EJF Real Estate Services both denied causing the damage, claiming it was the fault of third parties beyond their control, and that Lambert should have done more to prevent it himself.
Lambert, as a condo owner, paid Metropole $15,357 as his contribution to the facade work until he began to notice the damage in March 2024, the lawsuit claimed.
Armed US Marshals officers responded to the scene of the shooting
He reported the first ‘water intrusion’ into his apartment, as Metropole had ‘actively solicited’ from residents when the work started.
It wasn’t until August 2024 that Metropole cut a whole in Lambert’s drywall to check if there was water running behind the wall.
By the next month, the electric blind under the hole in the drywall had stopped working and a stinking mold grew in the area.
However, the lawsuit claimed Metropole denied there was any mold and sought to close the hole and ignore Lambert’s complaints.
Officials have acknowledged that the suspect had a conflict with his HOA before the shooting.
‘We do know there was a conflict between him and the homeowners association of that building, but at this point we’re continuing to look into that,’ Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said at a press conference.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
