James Stuart, the 46-year-old man who died in the Thursday morning shooting at VIDA Fitness in Logan Circle, has been remembered online as a kind neighbor, property manager, gym-goer and dodgeball teammate.
Daniel Prengel knew him simply as Jimmy.
Prengel met Stuart five days after moving to D.C. in 2013 and they “instantly became really close,” he told The Washington Sun. They dated for four years and remained close friends after they broke up.
He called Stuart his first “D.C. friend” who introduced him to the District and helped him through the “culture shock” of moving from the Midwest.
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“I wasn’t very much for stepping out of my comfort zone, and he really pushed me to do that,” Prengel said. “He showed me life is fun, life is an adventure, take advantage of it, and if something makes you uncomfortable, try it once, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”
Stuart loved the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies, Prengel recalled, and was fascinated by escaping into a world with themes of good versus evil. His Harry Potter house changed day to day, depending on his mood.
“He liked magic in general,” Prengel said. “He had a little wand that he used that connected to his TV as a remote so he could, like, you know, cast his little spells to change the channel.”
The holiday season was Stuart’s favorite time of year, Prengel said. He said when the two lived together, Stuart was always quick to throw up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Every room had a Christmas tree.
“He loved giving gifts to people,” Prengel said. “But it really wasn’t just about the gifts. He just always paid attention to his friends and what they wanted and wanted to make them happy.”
After they broke up, Stuart helped Prengel find a place to stay while they continued to live together for a month or so.
“He was my only friend available to help me move,” Prengel said. “He helped me move in and was there the first weekend to hang out and make sure I wasn’t alone. As our romantic relationship ended, our friendship reblossomed, and we hit a new groove of cheering for each other. There’s just no way to quantify what that means to me.”
While still processing Stuart’s death, Prengel found it hard to name just one favorite memory of their time together.
“Jimmy was always there,” Prengel said. “So you didn’t really have to think about this one memory or that one memory because you could always just make a new one with him.”
He was glad people were starting to learn about who Stuart was as a person, and not just hear the story about the gunman “who had an HOA feud.”
He also said that Stuart and the five others injured during the attack weren’t the only victims.
“The people in the gym next to him, they’re not going to be the same,” Prengel said. “The people injured on the streets, all because this man was mad — so many lives are going to be different because of that.”
Stuart was shot and killed during an attack carried out by Matt Lambert, a 55-year-old former health care technology executive apparently motivated by a bitter legal dispute against the Metropole Condominium Association, which Stuart, the building’s property manager, was involved in.
Scott Burka, president of Metropole manager EJF Real Estate Services, said in a statement that Stuart was “part of the fabric of this company.”
“Our hearts are with his family and everyone who loved him. We will honor Jimmy by caring for one another, friends, and family,” Burka said.
In its aftermath, Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George called the shooting an “unthinkable tragedy,” the Logan Circle community came together for a vigil Thursday night and Stuart’s loved ones took to social media to show the world the man they knew.
Adam Holzsager shared a photo on Facebook of Stuart carrying a bouquet of flowers, to steer attention away from the shooter.
“You will see pictures of the gunman in today’s mass shooting here in Washington,” Holzsager’s post said. “I want you to see his primary victim. James ‘Jimmy’ Stuart. I’m showing you because I knew Jimmy, and he didn’t deserve to be murdered.”
Josh Keilholtz, Prengel’s husband and a friend of Stuart’s, took to Instagram to thank people for reaching out after news of his death went public. In a text to The Washington Sun, he described Stuart as a “great friend.”
“If someone he knew ever needed a place to stay, he was the first to open his home to them, no questions asked until they got back on their feet,” Keilholtz wrote. “That’s just the person he was.”
In a Facebook post, Jessica Banks remembered Stuart as “celebration personified” and “everything fun and rhinestoned in this world.” She accompanied her post with a photo of Stuart and others celebrating Thanksgiving.
“I can’t imagine Thanksgiving or any other occasion without you,” she wrote.
Angelo Gunn, another person close to Stuart, said there won’t be a “day or moment that I will not believe in you. That I will not mourn you!” in a heartfelt tribute on social media.
Comments on the post recalled Stuart’s “bright spirit” and called his death a “massive loss.”
Stuart’s death was also felt by the wider D.C. community, including Stonewall Dodgeball, a recreational sports league for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies that Stuart joined in 2016.
“He was a neighborhood fixture with a huge heart, an unmistakable warmth, and a gift for making everyone feel welcome,” the league said in an Instagram post. “Jimmy brought people together and made our community feel more like family.”
A GoFundMe campaign was set up to raise funds for Stuart’s funeral expenses “and ensure he receives the meaningful and dignified farewell he deserves.”
Prengel made the first donation.
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