Deranged doctor who opened fire at DC apartment complex kept twisted online diary dubbed Of Mice and Mold

The doctor who killed his building manager at a luxury Washington DC condo complex kept an online diary of the problems he was facing in the building.

Dr Matt Lambert, 55, started posting about the issues at the Metropole building in the district’s Logan Circle neighborhood beginning in October 2025 amid his lawsuit against the property management company. 

The X account, dubbed ‘Of Mice and Mold,’ said it was providing ‘info on the Metropole and EJF,’ referring to Metropole Condominium Association and the building’s contractors, EJF Real Estate Services.

At first, Lambert’s posts detailed his efforts to get the contractors to fix the mold and water damage at his penthouse unit as Lambert also shared an invitation to his neighbors to visit his condo for the holidays.

But his posts became less light-hearted as the spring began, and he started documenting the work he had to do on his unit. 

In one chilling post on April 28, Lambert responded to another resident about the hot water not working.

‘If you’re looking for the building manager, I would check the gym,’ he wrote. 

It was at that gym that Lambert fatally shot James Stuart, 46, in the back at around 8am on Thursday in a deadly rampage that also saw four others injured.

Just one day before the shooting, Lambert also claimed on social media that the saga left him with ‘no shower, dryer, HVAC, and cooking’ for six months.

His last post, at 8.06am while he was believed to be holed up inside his apartment, read: ‘My manifesto is an engineering report.’

Lambert then once again raged at the building management in the aftermath of the shooting, when manager Charelle Ferguson asked him whether he was OK – unaware at that point that he was the gunman.

The doctor replied that he was tired of the mold and water damage in the unit, which he said rendered it unlivable. 

‘The only way people will pay attention, you have to do something,’ Ferguson remembered him saying.

He then confessed to shooting five people, including one of her co-workers, Stuart, Ferguson said.

‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,’ she said. ‘I tried to calm myself down and get as much info from him as I could and keep him on the phone.’

But Lambert had barricaded himself inside his penthouse apartment at 1515 15th Street, above the gym. 

While inside, he set off the sprinkler system; started a fire; and complained on the phone to a neighbor, another property manager, and police negotiators about his feud with the building.

He also wounded four random people on the ground whom he fired on from his balcony, before eventually turning the gun on himself.

At least one of the injured is in critical condition, while three others suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Police were eventually able to force themselves into the building, where Lambert reportedly shot at police twice through the door.

Negotiators spoke with him for roughly an hour through his apartment door before they heard a gunshot. 

Once inside, authorities found Lambert with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

They also uncovered three guns – a pistol, shotgun and rifle, none of which were registered to Lambert.

At an ensuing news conference, officials acknowledged that the suspect had a conflict with his HOA before the shooting. 

‘We do know there was a conflict between him and the homeowners association of that building, but at this point we’re continuing to look into that,’ said Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll.

But the rampage on Thursday came more than two years and one day after he moved out of his unit so the contractors could dismantle the walls and floors.

What prompted Lambert to go on a shooting spree while the lawsuit was still ongoing is unclear, even to his lawyer Joel Braithwaite.

The attorney said Lambert ‘was in a good place’ when he spoke to him a day or so before the shooting, and the case had a successful deposition last week.

Lambert had argued in his lawsuit, filed in March 2025, that ‘suspected water intrusion, mold, significant moisture accumulation, and/or related damage’ was a direct result of facade work Metropole began in March 2023.

He claimed that before the work began, his apartment had ‘no significant water intrusion, mold, moldy smells, moisture accumulation, or related damage.’

Metropole and EJF Real Estate Services both denied causing the damage, claiming it was the fault of third parties beyond their control, and that Lambert should have done more to prevent it himself.

Lambert, as a condo owner, paid Metropole $15,357 as his contribution to the facade work until he began to notice the damage in March 2024, the lawsuit claimed.

He reported the first ‘water intrusion’ into his apartment, as Metropole had ‘actively solicited’ from residents when the work started.

It wasn’t until August 2024 that Metropole cut a hole in Lambert’s drywall to check if there was water running behind the wall.

By the next month, the electric blind under the hole in the drywall had stopped working and a stinking mold grew in the area.

However, the lawsuit claimed Metropole denied there was any mold and sought to close the hole and ignore Lambert’s complaints.

But Lambert fought back, claiming that two independent assessments ‘confirmed that substantial moisture continues to accumulate in key areas of the unit, including the cement ceiling, soffit, baseboards, windowsills, and exterior walls’.

He sent a formal request to Metropole to fix the damage in line with recommendations by the assessors, and reimburse him for all costs.

The lawsuit claimed Metropole failed to carry out any of his requests, despite him providing ample photographic evidence.

‘[Metropole’s] work caused a moisture saturated ceiling, mold-covered external walls, and moisture-saturated floorboards under the windows, corrosion of metal surfaces under the drywall,’ the lawsuit claimed.

Metropole ultimately wrote to Lambert on October 21, 2024, promising to work with him to resolve the issues, but he claimed this never happened.

By November 11, he gave up and hired a contractor to remove the ‘moisture saturated’ walls and rotted floors.

He claimed this uncovered even more black mold and leaking pipes that were adding to the problem.

The lawsuit went on to claim Metropole made many promises to fix the problems, but had failed to deliver by the time the lawsuit was filed.

‘[Lambert’s] unit remains deconstructed, torn down to the metal frame which bears signs of the water intrusion and elevated moisture in the unit,’ it claimed.

He left the unit when the deconstruction began and claimed he wasn’t able to return as putting the unit back together would just cause more mold to grow unless Metropole fixed the underlying problems.

The case dragged on for the next year and a half, and Lambert began documenting every problem with the building he could find, along with the slow progress of the facade work. 

Photos he posted included mold, corroded metal, cockroaches and other vermin, water running inside his walls, and notifications from building management about various utility interruptions.

He also complained he was being ‘discriminated’ against as work was done on other units to fix similar problems, but not his own.

Then on October 1 this year, he posted an update on the case.

‘After months of ‘Luigi’ tactics (delay, deny, defend) by the HOA, we were finally able to submit an independent engineering report into the record,’ he wrote, referring to the Luigi Mangione murder case.

‘The report addresses 704, the facade rehabilitation more broadly, and lists other units affected. When the time is right, I will share the report on X, with other Metropole owners, and with Logan Circle realtors.’

As authorities now work to determine what may have prompted the well-off doctor to open fire, EJF Real Estate Services released a statement saying it was ‘devastated’ by Stuart’s death and denouncing the shooting as a ‘senseless act of violence.’

‘Jimmy was more than a colleague; he was a part of the fabric of this company,’ President Scott Burka said, noting that he joined the company 13 years ago as a property manager.

‘He was a respected and beloved member of our team,’ Burka said. ‘Our hearts are with his family and everyone who loved him. We will honor Jimmy by caring for one another, friends and family.’

He added that the company is cooperating with authorities in their investigation.