Deputy mayor resigns after video shows him choking personal trainer in gym parking lot

Former Deputy Mayor Chris Geldart was charged with assault following a car parking zone altercation with a private coach at his health club (Image: Fox5/Getty)

A deputy mayor in Washington DC resigned on Wednesday after he was charged with an assault caught on safety digital camera footage.

Chris Geldart, town’s deputy mayor for public security, resigned on Wednesday after he was charged with assault and battery following a car parking zone confrontation at a Virginia health club.

The alleged assault occurred on October 1 within the car parking zone of a Gold’s Gymnasium in Arlington the place Geldart typically works out.

Within the video, Geldart approaches and seems to choke one of many health club’s private trainers, Dustin Woodard.

Woodard stated the combat began when the deputy mayor by accident scratched his girlfriend’s automotive door within the car parking zone.

Safety digital camera footage exhibits Geldart showing to choke Woodard (Image: Fox 5)

Geldart escalated issues when Woodard took a photograph of his automotive and license plate.

The confrontation was caught on the health club’s safety digital camera, which was obtained by FOX5. The video exhibits Geldart towering over the a lot smaller Woodard, then grabbing at his neck.

Woodard’s girlfriend, in addition to different bystanders within the car parking zone, broke up the combat earlier than anybody was harm.

Geldart was charged with assault and battery. He turned himself in to police on October 4.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser introduced that she accepted a resignation from Geldart at a press convention on Wednesday.

‘I’m saddened to say that I've accepted the resignation of Deputy Mayor Chris Geldart, however I'm pleased with the work now we have executed during the last 8 years and I'm immensely grateful to Chris for his service to town,’ Bowser stated.

Bowser known as Geldart a ‘succesful and efficient public servant,’ and that they each agreed ‘the main target must be on the large points effecting DC.’

Earlier than he was appointed deputy mayor in January 2021, Geldart coordinated town’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and served as town’s Director of Public Works.

Geldart’s arrest additionally revealed that the deputy mayor was dwelling in a house exterior of DC – in Falls Church, Virginia.

DC regulation requires its public officers to dwell contained in the boundaries of the district. Geldart stated he had two properties – an residence within the metropolis’s Navy Yard neighborhood and a house he owned in Virginia, the place his spouse and kids dwell.

Bowser defended Geldart’s housing association, saying that many metropolis staff personal properties in different places.

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