ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Sunday afternoon several members of the Onelife Fitness on Hooff's Run Drive in Alexandria attempted to head inside for a workout, but the doors were locked and a sign on the door says the gym would remain closed for the time being after police tell us two men were shot and killed there Saturday around 4 p.m.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Tommy Dow who comes to this gym nearly every day. “I was there yesterday in the morning.”
Dow, like Brian Lemons, showed up to Onelife Fitness unaware of the shooting.
“I was walking by to see if I could get a quick workout in and some dude drove by and told me the gym’s closed, two people got shot. Its’ kind of crazy," said Lemons who lives nearby.
Alexandria Police say one of the two men that were killed was the alleged shooter.
On Monday, the police department identified the shooting victim as Joshua Wilcox, 29, of Maryland. The alleged shooter was Charles Hewitt, 30, of Washington, D.C.
“It was a shot, shot, shot," said a man who was inside the gym at the time of the shooting. He didn't want to be identified.
He says the shooting happened in what Onelife Fitness calls a stretch room.
“It’s a little bit closed off," said the witness. "No doors, but it’s kind of a wide area.”
He told WUSA9 there were about 45 people in the gym at the time and most, like him, couldn’t see what happened.
“And then you had people just running out of that direction. There was one woman who was running out, completely hysterical already on the verge of crying," said the witness. "She completely took a bee line from that room to the front door.”
That’s when he says he knew something was wrong and followed the crowd outside where he collected his thoughts.
"There was no commotion prior to that. There was no indication of something going wrong. It was just a completely normal day," said the witness. “I think this seemed to be a very targeted, concentrated attack on someone that just happened to be in the gym, and it was bad luck for everyone else that was there.”
Those that weren’t there, but come here often, can’t believe it happened in their home away from home.
“In terms of like actual murders, it’s very rare for this area," said Lemons. "It’s kind of a shock to the whole gym community here.”
They tell WUSA9 this is the first shooting death in Alexandria in 2024.