According to Pittsburgh station WPXI, George Soldini walked into an LA Fitness facility in Collier, Pennsylvania and opened fire.

Soldini killed at least three women and wounded at minimum ten more individuals during the shooting. Recent reports from law enforcement officials provide evidence that the shooting spree was premeditated.

George Soldini, 48, kept an online blog of his plans which spans months before last night’s violent outbreak in which he unloaded upwards of fifty rounds from two different guns. The Daily News reports that, after the shooting ended, Soldini added his own life to the death toll.

CNN details that the gunman entered the fitness center, where he was a confirmed member and entered a Latin dance class. George Soldini then shut off the lights and began firing.

His journal indicates that this was not the first time Soldini had entered the gym with loaded weapons before. On January 6th, he backed out of his plans after reaching his destination, writing “It is 8:45PM: I chickened out! I bought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!”

Snippets of his log have been released to the press.

The motive in the LA Fitness shooting appears to be gender-based, with website postings under his name spouting his intense hatred toward women and aggravation at rejection.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has sources that indicate Soldini’s girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend, according to other accounts) was among his victims. Those reports have not been confirmed by officials, according to the Post-Gazette.

Area detectives are working diligently on uncovering the identities of the wounded and deceased, but they are encountering some difficulty. Allegheny Couty Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt revealed that “at a fitness club, [the victims] don’t have their IDs on them, people don’t know who they are.”

Victims were spread out and taken to three hospitals in the area, which have confirmed the total number of wounded at ten. A spokesman for St. Clair Hospital told the media that one woman died after being brought to their facility, but whether she is the fifth fatality or included in the previous four is uncertain.

Police have also discovered that George Soldini’s two firearms were purchased and obtained legally. Included in the black bag in which Soldini carried his weapons was a note, the contents of which are not being unveiled at this time.

ABC news has analyzed the killer’s online entries and states that he wanted his work, including his “practice papers” at his home or the notes in his gym bag to be published and studied.

Mary Primis, a pregnant aerobics instructor at LA Fitness, was among the women wounded in the attack. She spoke to WXPI, a local news outlet, about the series of events before the shooting began and then after Soldini opened fire and she dropped to the ground.

Primis: “When I was on the floor, I felt the first bullet on my left shoulder and then about 30 seconds later I felt the second in my back. I remember thinking I wanted to hold my breath because if he saw that I was breathing he would shoot again.” The second bullet is still in Primis’s back, but doctors say her baby is fine.

Keep checking back for the latest on this continually developing story.

Our Take:

Yep, this is messed up. Unfortunately, it is not the first or last time this will happen. Person endures heartbreak or rejection, suffers from depression, then turns his emotion into unfiltered aggression which he aims at the generalized group of individuals he feels are responsible for his situation.
Soldini had problems to be sure. Unfortunately, we can’t observe every single person with a hint of psychosis. However, in this case, he freakin’ blogged about his plans!

This comes back to a responsibility of internet-hounds out there to report these individuals so they can be monitored by police and other agencies. Maybe if the man were under surveillance, he would not have been able to purchase the firearms used in the attack.

In death, George Soldini gets his wish of attention, even if its in a negative light. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their families.