Equinox gym announced Sunday that gym fitness manager Mario Hortis has died after being shot multiple times at the club's Merrick Park location, according to an email sent to members.
Equinox issued the email statement Sunday morning saying that it is ``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 general manager of the gym; Hortis was fitness manager.
Miami-Dade Police Department identified the shooter as 33-year-old Abeku Wilson of Miami, who was fired from the gym earlier on Saturday ``due to work place violence and was escorted off the premises.''
Shortly after his dismissal, Wilson returned to the gym armed with a handgun and fired multiple shots at both managers before shooting himself to death. Police said the managers were deliberately targeted and that the shooting was not random.
Former Miami Commissioner 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 off-kilter.
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``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.''
