Police in Gardner, Mass., say a man is being held on assault charges after stabbing a patron at a Planet Fitness location there.
As reported by WHDH in Boston, the Gardner Police Department said the stabbing happened around 10:20 a.m. Daniel Harris, 43, was seriously wounded and was flown to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
“Out of nowhere, I feel somebody grab me from behind, and I feel like what’s a punch to my back,” Harris said, as reported by WHDH. “There was blood everywhere, though. That was what scared me more than anything. I’ve never seen myself bleed that much.”
Harris said he was pulled to the ground in the men’s locker room, and his attacker ran away. Gym employees grabbed gauze for Harris’s wound and recorded the suspect’s license plate number.
Lennox Nunez, 28, of Revere was later stopped and arrested in Fitchburg with assistance from Massachusetts State Police. He was arraigned at Gardner District Court for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and ordered held on $50,000 cash bail. A judge ruled that in the event Lennox were to make bail, he would be fitted with a GPS tracking device while also being ordered to stay away from all Planet Fitness locations.
Officials described Lennox as being unhoused and that he previously had been using the gym’s facilities to shower. No motive for the attack has been determined by police, WHDH's Victoria Price, Steve Cooper and James Paleologopoulos reported.
Harris said he doesn’t know Nunez or have any idea why he would stab him. “I’m not going to let anybody like that stop me from going to a place I love and work out,” he said.
In a written statement to WHDH, a Planet Fitness spokesperson said, “The safety and security of our members and staff is always our top priority. We take these types of incident extremely seriously, and the local Planet Fitness franchise owner is actively working with authorities in their investigation.”
