A reporter confronted Democratic Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday after the city’s deputy mayor allegedly grabbed a gym trainer by the neck.
Fox 5 DC reporter Sierra Fox approached Bowser with the alleged footage of her employee, Chris Geldart, grabbing the trainer in the Arlington gym’s parking lot during an Oct. 1 incident. The mayor refused to answer Fox’s questions about the footage.
“I haven’t seen it —” the mayor said.
“You’re looking at it now, this is the video,” Fox interjected.
“Actually, I asked you for it earlier where I could really view it and that’s where I will view it, in my office,” Bowser replied.
“You can see it right now, though, in the video,” the reporter said. “So you are going to speak to us later about this at a different time?”
“No, actually, I probably won’t,” the mayor said. She then claimed that she did not receive information from the outlet that she had asked for.
The Mayor’s Office just sent me this statement: “We take any accusations seriously and are reviewing the matter. While it is under review, Deputy Mayor Geldart is on leave. Unfortunately, it sounds like something that happens to a lot of people – a dispute over something minor.”
— Sierra Fox (@thesierrafox) October 5, 2022
The office then sent a statement to Fox saying that it “take[s] any accusations seriously” but it sounds like these incidents commonly happen. (RELATED: DC Mayor Traveled To ‘High Risk’ Delaware For Biden Victory Speech Despite Her Own Mandate)
The trainer at Gold’s Gym, Dustin Woodward, exclusively shared footage with Fox 5 that allegedly showed Geldart putting his hand on Woodward, the outlet reported. The confrontation reportedly arose after Geldart hit the parked car of Woodward’s girlfriend after opening his car door.
Woodward said Geldart began screaming and cursing after he confronted him. So Woodward turned around and told him to “shut up,” the outlet reported. Geldart then got into Woodward’s face and eventually grabbed him by the throat, footage appeared to show, according to the outlet.
Woodward later told the outlet that the gym had been putting up with Geldart for a long period of time.
“It’s a little frustrating, right? Because he’s way too big to be trying to be a bully, especially with his position. Something should be done. It’s not okay,” Woodward said. “We’ve been dealing with him for a while at Gold’s. Multiple locations actually, that’s how we even figured out who he was. So, something needs to be done because you can’t just abuse your power like that. That’s pretty frustrating on my end.”
Footage from Wednesday night showed Fox knocking on Geldart’s garage door asking if he would like to answer to the video, but he did not answer and eventually drove away.
After several unsuccessful attempts to reach out to DC’s Deputy Mayor Chris Geldart by phone, we did a door knock at his Falls Church, Virginia home to give him the opportunity to share his side. He saw @fox5dc, but avoided us. Geldart eventually drove away ignoring questions. pic.twitter.com/ftkTsr3Yzx
— Sierra Fox (@thesierrafox) October 6, 2022
The Arlington Police Department confirmed in an email to the Daily Caller that Geldart turned himself in following the issuance of a warrant for Assault & Battery and was released on summons.
The Daily Caller has contacted Geldart’s office for comment and will update accordingly.