Gunman Opens Fire at Fla. Fitness Center After Being Fired for ‘Workplace Violence’

A Florida fitness instructor opened fire at the Equinox fitness club in Coral Gables on Saturday afternoon, killing two managers before killing himself, shortly after being fired for “workplace violence.”

The Miami Herald reports that Abeku Wilson, 33, had been escorted off the premises after he was dismissed Saturday, only to return shortly afterward with a handgun. He fatally shot two supervisors—general manager Janine Ackerman, 35, and fitness manager Marios Hortis, 42—multiple times before he “turned the gun on himself,” according to Miami-Dade police.

Police said “both victims were targeted” in the shooting and that it “was not an act of random violence.”

Wilson died at the scene.

Ackerman and Hortis were rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but both later died. Ackerman was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting Saturday, while Hortis’ death was revealed in an email to club members Sunday morning.

According to the Herald, a police news release did not give details about Wilson’s termination or when the alleged violence that prompted the dismissal occurred.

Wilson was actually at work Saturday morning and had finished with a client about an hour before the shooting occurred. Client Eveliny Bastos-Klein told the Herald that she “didn’t notice anything amiss” during her hourlong session with Wilson, which finished at noon Saturday, and that she had made an appointment with Wilson for Wednesday.

The shooting occurred at 12:55 p.m.

“There is nothing I can say to lessen the searing pain we all feel at this terrible moment,” Harvey Spevak, chief executive officer of the Equinox gym chain, said in a Facebook post Sunday, Reuters notes.

Read more at the Niami Herald and Reuters.