Pa. gym where 3 women were killed reopens quietly

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. - Members wearing workout gear and holding water bottles and towels quietly returned yesterday to an Allegheny County health club where a gunman had killed three women, as calm replaced the chaos of a few weeks ago.

Workers inside LA Fitness took down white plastic sheeting behind the front glass doors before unlocking them, opening the cavernous club for the first time since the Aug. 4 shooting.

"This is a happy, nice place, and I think it's important that we come back because things like that can't control our lives," said Dorrine Green of Upper St. Clair, who was one of about 15 people waiting at the club when it opened at 8 a.m.

Many of them said they were looking forward to getting back to their routine, which was interrupted the night George Sodini entered the club with a gym bag full of guns.

The 48-year-old computer analyst killed three women and injured nine others in a Latin dance class before killing himself. Sodini targeted the class full of women after what he described on a hate-filled Web page as years of rejection and loneliness.

In the days after the bloodshed, the police tape that had cordoned off the club was replaced by a small, makeshift memorial of flowers and notes.

The sprawling parking lot in front of the beige building remained eerily empty.

Before the doors opened yesterday, an LA Fitness worker removed two teddy bears, a bouquet and a note left at the front door and placed them in a grassy area next to the club. The space was filled with signs and cards, one of which said "Why" on its front cover.

The memorial was the only visible sign of what had happened; club members said the room where the shooting took place had been redone with new floors and mirrors. About a dozen people participated in a morning aerobics class there, they said.

The club's day care, visible from the front, had several children playing inside.

The club, part of a chain based in Irvine, Calif., reopened only to members yesterday; LA Fitness said it would reopen to the general public tomorrow. The company referred media inquiries about the reopening to its Web site.

"We thank everyone for their support," read a statement online. "Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims and those who are now recovering."

Member Eric Chandler, 35, went to the club yesterday morning without his usual workout gear. He said he wasn't there to lift weights or do a cardiovascular workout.

"I just wanted to come in and walk around and pray," he said.

After leaving the club, Chandler said everything inside looked the same but that it had felt "like walking into a library."

"It's quieter than normal," he said.