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A gunman from Scott Township who investigators believe was nursing a grudge against women walked into an aerobics room at a Collier fitness center Tuesday night, turned out the lights and opened fire, killing three women and wounding nine others before taking his own life.

Investigators identified the gunman as George Sodini, a 48-year-old member of the LA Fitness center in the Great Southern Shopping Center where the shooting occurred shortly after 8 p.m. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said his family has not been notified.

Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said the gunman may have fired 50 shots at the 20-22 women inside the room at the time before turning one of his guns on himself and taking his own life. There were perhaps another 50 people in various other parts of the facility at the time.

Moffatt said the gunman left a note inside his gym bag that indicated he did expected to die in the carnage.

The superintendent did not reveal the contents of the note but other investigators said it appears that the Sodini hated women and had made a couple of trips to the fitness center earlier in the day before entering a final time shortly before 8 p.m., armed with at least two handguns hidden inside his gym bag.

"The big question is, why would he do something like this?" Moffatt said. "It probably only lasted a minute or so."

The superintendent, who said the guns were all registered to the gunman, said "there was nothing anyone could have done" to prevent the slaughter.

"I don't believe anyone could have stopped him to be quite honest," Moffatt said.

Moffatt said police and the Allegheny County Medical Examiner were still trying to identify the three dead women, one of whom was found about 7 feet from the gunman's body, the other about 12 feet away from him. The wounded women have all been identified.

"Some of them are undergoing surgery, some of them are in critical condition, others were treated and released," Moffatt said in a news briefing shortly after 2 a.m.

"The scene was so chaotic that we felt it was more important to secure the scene rather than send officers to the hospital," Moffatt said. "We're still attempting to identify some of the deceased. As you can imagine, in a fitness club they don't have their IDs on them so we're having trouble."

"He kept firing and firing," said Dennis Curry, 28, of Scott, who said he was working out on an elliptical machine upstairs when he heard the gunfire. "There was chaos. I ran out the back door, saw a girl lying there with a gunshot wound. I put a shirt on her to try and stop (the bleeding). There was blood everywhere."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_636758.html