Police officers investigate outside of the L.A.
Fitness health club where a gunman reportedly
opened fire in the aerobics room Tuesday,
Aug. 4, 2009 in Bridgeville, Pa.
BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- Investigators were trying to determine why a gunman walked into a fitness center near Pittsburgh, firing up to 52 shots only at women gathered in a dance exercise class, killing three, and wounding nine before shooting himself.
Two women and the man believed to be the shooter died at the LA Fitnes center in Collier Township on Tuesday night, and another woman died on the way to a hospital, Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said at a news conference in the center's parking lot early Wednesday.
"He walked right into the room where the shootings occurred as if he knew exactly where he was going," Moffatt said. "I think he went in with the idea of doing what he did."
The violence rocked Collier, a bedroom community of about 5,300 residents near Interstate 79, some eight miles southwest of downtown Pittsburgh. The county established a police command post at a nearby Bob Evans restaurant, where witnesses were interviewed and the media were briefed shortly after the shooting; family of victims were encouraged to gather at a nearby fire hall.
Joann Gazzam, a member of the weekly "Latin impact" dance aerobics 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 ever Tuesday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. but was running late and didn't make it. Police say the shooting happened about 8:15 p.m.
The clean-shaven gunman walked in the room wearing workout gear, turned off the lights and, at first nobody knew what was happening, said Stacey Falk, 26, of Bridgeville, who was in the class.
"All of us girls were just ducking behind each other and it was just, you know, I was behind a girl, one of the girls in front to get hit, and when he was in the opposite corner shooting, I booked it," she told WPXI-TV.
Moffatt said police were not sure who the target of the shooting was, but witnesses said moments after the incident that an ex-girlfriend may have been targeted. Moffatt wouldn't confirm that.
Moffatt said the gunman went into the health club planning to shoot several people - firing "multiple" weapons "indiscriminately," - and didn't say anything before unleashing a burst of bullets.
The gunman was a member of the health club and had identification, but that police needed to check fingerprints and speak to his family to confirm his identity, Moffatt said. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner said three of the four victims had been positively identified early Wednesday, but their names would likely not be released before midmorning.
Moffatt said police recovered at least two guns from the scene and that a note was found in the shooter's duffel bag, but he would not say whether the shooter had written it.
"I don't think anyone could have stopped him," Moffatt said.
Five victims arrived in critical condition at UPMC Mercy Hospital, but three were upgraded to serious condition by early Wednesday. Two women remained in fair condition at another Pittsburgh hospital, while one victim was treated and released for a shoulder wound at a third hospital south of the city. A woman with a bullet wound to the knee remained there in stable condition Wednesday.
Moffatt said the gunman may have fired as many as 52 shots, assuming the guns were fully loaded and subtracting the number of bullets remaining in them. The shooting took about a minute and police don't believe the gunman would have had time to reload.
Moffatt would not say what kind of guns were used, but he believes the gunman was their legal owner.
Loretta Moss, 44, of McDonald, said she was exercising on a treadmill when she heard a popping noise.
"I didn't pay any attention, and the next minute, people were screaming," said Moss, who had come to the gym Tuesday night for the first time in a couple of weeks. She said she then heard more pops.
"There was like a whole spray of them. I'd say about 15 altogether, and then people started screaming and yelling and started running out the building," she said.
"We laid down, and then after the last set of ... gunshots, we got up, and someone said run."
Moss said she then saw two young women bleeding, one shot in the leg and one in the shoulder. She said she checked on the pulse of the lady shot in the leg.
"She was screaming, 'It's burning, just please call the ambulance,'" Moss said.
Richard Walker of Tulsa, Okla., who is in the area working on oil rigs, was playing basketball near the exercise room when he heard shots.
"The next thing I know, everybody's going, 'Run, run,'" he said. He said heard about 12 shots before he started moving and another eight or nine as he was leaving the building. He led a woman who had been shot in the thigh outside the building about 50 yards.
"She just kept saying, 'He's gonna kill me.'" Walker said she didn't elaborate.
The fitness center, which opened last year, is in a strip mall called the Great Southern Shopping
Center, where a few businesses were destroyed in a 2006 fire. The fitness center said in a statement: "Each of us in the LA Fitness family are shocked and saddened by the senseless acts of violence that took place."
