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Tragedy strikes Brooklyn gym
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 14:35 This is the area of Brooklyn where I grew up. I knew the neighborhood could be rough at times, but I thought it had calmed down since then. Today I read of the sad story of Brooklyn social worker Douglas Smith, who was stabbed and clubbed with a hammer over a workout on a elliptical machine in East Flatbush gym. Difficult to believe this could happen.
A Brooklyn social worker described as "the picture of health" was slain at his neighborhood gym in a feud over exercise equipment.
Douglas Smith, 50, was knifed and clobbered with a hammer by a pair of muscleheads who attacked him as he worked out at his East Flatbush health club.
Smith died Sunday morning at Kings County Hospital, a day after he was jumped inside the cops said yesterday.
"He was a gentle giant," Smith's heartbroken father, Castello Smith, 77, said last night.
The father said he learned of his son's death from police yesterday afternoon.
"I wish I could have been with him [at the hospital]. At least he would have been able to hear my voice. I would have said, 'Dougie, this is your daddy,'" the elder Smith said.
An argument between Smith, a bodybuilding buff standing more than 6 feet tall, and a younger, scrawnier club member preceded the fatal attack, witnesses said.