CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The South Florida gym where two people were killed over the weekend before the suspected gunman turned the gun on himself reopened Monday.
Equinox members told Local 10 News that they are like one big family, so what happened Saturday is still weighing heavily on their hearts.
They said returning to the gym Monday to work out was not easy.
"The only way to end this is to stop random violence with guns," Lisa Rosen, who knew the victims, said. "People are dead. Three. Two were very young and very beautiful, and one was clearly troubled. But the answer is to get rid of guns."
Members of the Equinox Fitness Club in Merrick Park are still shaken about the shooting that killed two managers at the hands, police said, of a popular trainer who was fired just hours before.
"I knew the other two gentlemen just from being at the gym, but Janine I did know, and she's a tender, sweet, kind, caring person who at 35 years old should not be dead," Rosen said.
Police said general manager Janine Ackerman and fitness manager Marios Hortis, 42, were shot Saturday afternoon inside the Coral Gables gym.
"She was a radiant human being, and this is just ... there are no words," Mabel De Buenza, who previously worked with Ackerman, said.
Ackerman worked at the Equinox Fitness Club in Coral Gables for about two years. She was promoted to the general manager position just this past summer. Friends said she embraced the role.
"She was the textbook manager," De Buenza said. "Everything that could have possibly went wrong in that situation … I cannot fathom that there was anything that she could have possibly provoked."
Police said Abeku Wilson, 33, was fired earlier that day and came back with a gun, killing the two managers before shooting himself.
"I would have never expected something like this. He was one of my friends," Hamad Shirazi said. "He was a big teddy bear. He was so pleasant to be around."
Shirazi was hired at Equinox at the same time as Wilson and the two remained close after Shirazi left the gym.
"As soon as we met, we clicked, we connected. He spoke to me generally as an older brother figure," Shirazi said.
Shirazi and other friends of Wilson said the man who killed himself and two others was not the person who they knew and loved, and believe there were deeper issued involved.
"There's no defense in his actions, but I hope that all of us can come together to remember him in a better light ,and also learn from this and move forward, so we can make a positive outcome even though it's an unfortunate situation," Shirazi said.
Family, friends and gym members packed Merrick Park Sunday night for a candlelight vigil, grieving over the senseless tragedy.
The gym reopened Monday morning for the first time since the shooting happened.
Security stood near every entrance of the fitness center.
"Who expects to hear shots on a Saturday afternoon, sitting on the patio of a luxury store?" Rosen said. "Then we saw the SWAT teams with their M4 rifles. This is Coral Gables, and after Newtown, if our country could not get it together, then I just don't understand. We have to do something about gun violence."
A lot of people who knew Wilson said they're shocked that he did this.
Police have only said that he was fired Saturday due to "workplace violence."
Equinox typically opens at 5:30 a.m. on weekdays, but opened at 8 a.m. on Monday.
Ackerman will be buried in her home state of New Jersey.