Fired Equinox Trainer Kills General Manager, Injures Another Employee

[UPDATE: The second victim in this shooting, Mario Hortis, died on April 9 after this story was initially posted, according to media reports.]

A former Equinox trainer shot two Equinox employees at an Equinox gym in Coral Gables, Florida, before killing himself with his gun after being fired that morning, according to multiple media reports. One of the employees, Janice Ackerman, 35, was the general manager at the health club. She later died from her injuries. The other employee, Mario Hortis, 42, is a fitness manager at the gym. (UPDATE: Hortis later died of his injuries.)

The shooter, Abeku Wilson, was a 33-year-old trainer who had been fired earlier that day and returned with a gun, according to a report from The Miami Herald .

The shooting occurred at around 1 p.m. Eastern on April 8 inside the health club at the Shops of Merrick Park in Coral Gables. The mall was evacuated because it was initially thought to be an active shooter situation, but police later said the shooting was the result of an employee-manager dispute.

Equinox employees got members out of the gym after the shooting, according to a report from NBC Miami TV 6, quoting Javy Rodrigues, a member at the club.

"Equinox workers did an amazing job of calmly … getting the rest out of there," Rodriguez told the station.

Equinox released this statement to the press: "We are working with all of the relevant authorities as they investigate the situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy."

Wilson's Model Mayhem page noted that he was "God-fearing, outgoing, charismatic, versatile, ambitious, kind hearted, and has a youthful and loving sense of humor." Wilson, born in Boston, had a bachelor's degree in business administration. He was a popular trainer, according to a Miami Herald article about him in which people described him as a "friendly, positive, well-balanced man who often acted more reserved around strangers."

One of his Saturday morning clients, Eveliny Bastos-Klein, told the Miami Herald that Wilson acted normally while training her for her session, which ended just an hour before the shooting. However, another person who knew Wilson, Marc Sarnoff, told the paper that the usually clean-shaven Wilson was unshaven, "looked off and seemed to slur his words" when he spoke to him briefly that morning.

A witness to the shooting told the Miami Herald that Wilson was dressed in the black shirt and black shorts that Equinox trainers wear when he walked in the front door of the health club, "assumed a shooting stance and targeted a man behind the check-in counter."