LA Fitness Shootings

It's impossible to make sense out of this.

From the Associated Press:

An armed man strolled to the back of an exercise class at a health club in suburban Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and then pulled out two guns and started spraying bullets, leaving four people dead, including himself, and injuring at least 10 others, authorities said.

A law enforcement official said two women and a man believed to be the shooter died at the scene Tuesday night and a fourth person died on the way to a hospital. The official wasn't authorized to comment on the investigation into the shooting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said the shooter did not say anything before unleashing a burst of bullets.

"He walked right into the room where the shootings occurred as if he knew exactly where he was going," Moffatt said.

Three bodies were removed early Wednesday from the L.A. Fitness Center in Bridgeville, a community of about 5,000 residents not far from downtown Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh International Airport.

A woman with a chest wound died at St. Clair Hospital, where two other female victims were in stable condition, spokesman Rich Sieber said.

Five victims arrived in critical condition at UPMC Mercy Hospital, and two women were listed in fair condition at Allegheny General Hospital, hospital officials said.

Joann Gazzam, who was taking part in the weekly Latin impact dance exercise class, saw the gunman walk to the back of the room near some weights, set down a bag and fumble with it for a few minutes before coming up with what appeared to be two guns and opening fire, according to her sister, Debi Wozniak, of suburban Dormont.

Gazzam told Wozniak that the instructor was among those who appeared to have been shot, and that the gunman had killed himself.

"She told me, 'Debi, I seen everything. Oh, my God, I seen everything. I seen him pull out the guns,'" said Wozniak, who usually attends the class but was running late Tuesday and didn't make it.

Moffatt said police recovered two guns from the scene. He would not discuss a possible motive for the shooting, whose victims hadn't been identified.

I don't want to know the gunman's name or dwell on him, mainly because that's probably what he would have wanted.

These shooters who try to take out as many people as possible before shooting themselves aren't worthy of being named.

Why randomly gun down people when you intend to kill yourself?

Why not skip that first part and spare the lives of innocents, spare the loved ones heartbreak?

Obviously, the gunman went to LA Fitness with a plan. He intended to commit murder, and he didn't seem to care whose life he ended.

As in all cases like this, I'm thankful that more people weren't killed or injured and I pray for the victims and their loved ones.
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Video:

Witness Michael Hentosz

Allegheny Co. Police Supt. Charles Moffatt's Press Conference

More, on the gunman:

Investigators identified the gunman as George Sodini, a 48-year-old member of the LA Fitness center in the Great Southern Shopping Center where the shooting occurred shortly after 8 p.m. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said his family has not been notified.

Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said the gunman may have fired 50 shots at the 20-22 women inside the room at the time before turning one of his guns on himself and taking his own life. There were perhaps another 50 people in various other parts of the facility at the time.

Moffatt said the gunman left a note inside his gym bag that indicated he did expected to die in the carnage.

The superintendent did not reveal the contents of the note but other investigators said it appears that the Sodini hated women and had made a couple of trips to the fitness center earlier in the day before entering a final time shortly before 8 p.m., armed with at least two handguns hidden inside his gym bag.

"The big question is, why would he do something like this?" Moffatt said. "It probably only lasted a minute or so."

The superintendent, who said the guns were all registered to the gunman, said "there was nothing anyone could have done" to prevent the slaughter.

"I don't believe anyone could have stopped him to be quite honest," Moffatt said.