Gunman had just been fired from job: police

Man shot and killed 2 managers, then himself on Saturday

MIAMI — The man who shot and killed two managers at a Florida gym before turning the gun on himself had just been fired from the fitness centre for workplace violence, police said Sunday.

The Miami-Dade Police Department said in a statement Sunday that 33-year-old Abeku Wilson of Miami was let go Saturday as a fitness trainer at the Equinox gym in Coral Gables “due to workplace violence and was escorted off the premises.”

Authorities didn’t elaborate on what that violence involved.

Shortly after his dismissal, Wilson returned to the gym with a handgun and fired multiple shots at both managers before fatally shooting himself. Police said the managers were deliberately targeted and that the shooting wasn’t random.

Equinox issued an email statement Sunday that it was “deeply saddened” by the deaths of the two employees, 35-year-old Janine Ackerman of Miami and 42-year-old Marios Hortis of Miami Beach. Ackerman was the gym’s general manager and Hortis the fitness manager.

Marc Sarnoff, who previously trained with Wilson for two years, saw him at the gym before Saturday’s shooting and noticed something was wrong.

Wilson typically was “very buttoned up, very proper, very appropriate,” Sarnoff said in a phone interview. But on Saturday, Wilson physically bumped into Sarnoff and his current trainer. The usually adept Wilson seemed noticeably offkilter.

“He wasn’t clean-shaven ... and he seemed to be slurring his words,” said Sarnoff. “He said, ‘I’m sorry I’m just off balance this morning’.”

The shooting happened about 1 p.m. Saturday at the upscale Shops at Merrick Park. Shoppers, diners at mall restaurants and people in workout gear ran to safety or took cover after reports of gunfire.

“Five gunshots,” Ovi Viera, who was in the men’s locker room, told The Miami Herald. “It was too loud for it to have been a weight dropping. Within two seconds, people just started running out.”