Man Stabs Fellow Gym-Goer in Dispute Over Leg Press at LA Fitness Location

A Texas man has been arrested after he stabbed another man in a dispute over the use of a leg press at a North Austin LA Fitness location. 

"If you’re going to come to a public gym, it’s going to take some patience," LA Fitness member Andrew Puno told Fox 7. 

Court records show that on Friday a man was at the LA Fitness location a little after 11 a.m. when he said he wanted to use the leg press machine. However, someone else was using it. The man on the machine told him to go do something else. 

"There are signs posted that say somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes per equipment use, so if people are following those rules, then you shouldn’t have anyone get that impatient," Puno said.

The man did wait for the machine, and when it opened up, he finished his workout and went into the locker room. He said the man who was first on the machine started yelling at him and the next thing he knew, he felt blood flowing down his leg. 

Court documents shows that John Makinson, 69, had stabbed the other man in the buttocks while chasing him around the bathroom with a knife. 

A staff member told the victim to go to the front where people gathered around him to protect him from Makinson who was still yelling, "Who else wants some?" A bystander was able to calm Makinson down and get him away from the victim.

"You don’t expect that you’re going to go have a workout and someone to be stabbed," Puno said.

The victim was taken to the hospital and stitched up, while Makinson was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He told responding officers that he had just gotten out of prison for this. 

Makinson was convicted of the same charge about 11 years ago and is now being held in the Travis County Jail on $50,000 bond.