Washington DC city employee, 33, is shot dead in a Planet Fitness parking lot by man who then went on the run in a stolen car and killed himself as cops closed in

 A Washington DC city employee has died after she was shot dead in a Planet Fitness gym parking lot by a man who later killed himself after going on the run.

Nikiesha Thomas, 33, was sat in her car on Thursday morning at 9.25am when suspect Antoine Oliver, 36, ran up to the parked vehicle and fired at least one shot through the car window in the 3200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington DC.

Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement Oliver fled the parking lot before carjacking a maroon SUV in Prince George's County. 

Officers were called to the armed carjacking near Minnesota Avenue and East Capitol Street, Northeast, at 12.49pm, but police said when cops stopped the stolen vehicle, Oliver took out a firearm and shot himself inside the car.  

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Nikiesha Thomas died after she was shot in the head in a Planet Fitness gym parking lot by a man who later killed himself after going on the run.

The suspect was taken to a local hospital where he later died as a result of his injuries and detectives said Oliver's firearm was recovered from inside the carjacked vehicle.

Thomas, who worked for the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education's Strong Start DC Early Intervention Program, was found by officers inside her car suffering from a gunshot wound. 

Medics rushed the victim to the local hospital for treatment but police said she later died from her injuries. 

'A single male from a vehicle ran up to that vehicle, fired at least one shot into the vehicle, striking a female,' Police Commander John Haines told News4. 

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Nikiesha Thomas, 33, was sat in her car on Thursday morning at 9.25am when suspect Antoine Oliver, 36, ran up to the parked vehicle and fired at least one shot through the car window in the 3200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington DC

Witnesses said they heard a loud bang and the screeching of tires. It unclear whether Thomas had gone to the Planet Fitness gym or was going there when she was shot.

A white sedan with a single bullet hole in the driver's side window can be seen in the parking lot outside Planet Fitness. 

The car had heavy damage at the front - but it is currently unclear how the damage occurred.  

Detectives said the homicide was domestic in nature, and media reports suggest Oliver, of Fort Washington, Maryland,  and Thomas, of Olney, Maryland, had been in a relationship.