Deputy Mayor of Washington DC resigns after video shows him choking personal trainer in gym parking lot

Former Deputy Mayor Chris Geldart was charged with assault following a parking lot altercation with a personal trainer at his gym (Picture: Fox5/Getty)

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

Chris Geldart, the city’s deputy mayor for public safety, resigned on Wednesday after he was charged with assault and battery following a parking lot confrontation at a Virginia gym.

The alleged assault happened on October 1 in the parking lot of a Gold’s Gym in Arlington where Geldart sometimes works out.

In the video, Geldart approaches and appears to choke one of the gym’s personal trainers, Dustin Woodard.

Woodard said the fight started when the deputy mayor accidentally scratched his girlfriend’s car door in the parking lot.

Security camera footage shows Geldart appearing to choke Woodard (Picture: Fox 5)

Geldart escalated things when Woodard took a photo of his car and license plate.

The confrontation was caught on the gym’s security camera, which was obtained by FOX5. The video shows Geldart towering over the much smaller Woodard, then grabbing at his neck.

Woodard’s girlfriend, as well as other bystanders in the parking lot, broke up the fight before anyone was hurt.

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

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

‘I’m saddened to say that I have accepted the resignation of Deputy Mayor Chris Geldart, but I am proud of the work we have done over the last 8 years and I am immensely grateful to Chris for his service to the city,’ Bowser said.

Bowser called Geldart a ‘capable and effective public servant,’ and that they both agreed ‘the focus should be on the big issues effecting DC.’

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

Geldart’s arrest also revealed that the deputy mayor was living in a home outside of DC – in Falls Church, Virginia.

DC law requires its public officials to live inside the boundaries of the district. Geldart said he had two homes – an apartment in the city’s Navy Yard neighborhood and a home he owned in Virginia, where his wife and children live.

Bowser defended Geldart’s housing arrangement, saying that many city employees own homes in other places.

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