No motive found yet in yoga-class attack

Police said Saturday that they still did not know why a 40-year-old man went to a yoga studio Friday in Tallahassee, Fla., where he shot and killed two women and injured five other people before shooting and killing himself.

However, a picture of the gunman, Scott Beierle of Deltona, Fla., and his victims, who were both connected to Florida State University, where Beierle had been arrested at least twice began to slowly emerge.

Beierle arrived at the yoga studio shortly after 5:30 p.m., posing as a customer, and began shooting patrons with a handgun without warning, police said.

People inside the studio, Hot Yoga Tallahassee, fought back against Beierle, preventing a greater tragedy, Michael DeLeo, chief of the Tallahassee Police Department, said in a statement Saturday.

Officials identified the victims who were shot and killed as Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and Maura Binkley, 21. Three of those injured had been released from the hospital as of Saturday morning. The other two were in stable condition, police said. Four of the injured victims were women, and one was a man.

John Thrasher, president of Florida State University, said Saturday on Twitter that Binkley was a student at the university and Van Vessem was a faculty member. A profile on the university's website said Van Vessem was responsible for coordinating the third- and fourth-year clerkship rotations in internal medicine at the Tallahassee campus.

Binkley, a senior, was set to graduate in May, said Azalee Vereen, her aunt. Binkley was majoring in journalism and German, and was preparing for life after college by applying for programs like Fulbright and Teach for America.

Binkley, who grew up in a northern suburb of Atlanta, was "very smart, very beautiful and just very giving," Vereen said.

She said her niece enjoyed yoga classes but had not attended one in a while.

DeLeo said Beierle was a graduate of Florida State University and had been staying at a hotel. Investigators are still trying to determine a connection between the gunman and the victims or the studio, the chief said.

Records in Leon County, Fla., show that Beierle moved from Vestal, N.Y., near Binghamton, to Tallahassee in 2011.

Court records show that Beierle was charged in December 2012 with battery after a woman accused him of grabbing her buttocks at a dining hall on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee. The charges were dismissed in May 2013.

In 2014, Beierle was charged with trespassing at a dining hall on campus, and was given some sort of pretrial intervention, though it was unclear Saturday exactly what that entailed or how the case was resolved.

In June 2016, Beierle was again charged with battery, but the charge was dismissed in 2017.

According to television station WCTV, the 2016 arrest happened after Beierle was accused of grabbing a woman's buttocks at his apartment complex.

A lawyer whose firm represented Beierle in the 2012 and 2016 cases, Don Pumphrey Jr., declined to comment on those cases Saturday. "Our hearts go out to the families," he said.

Jack Campbell, a Florida State University attorney, declined to comment on the cases and referred questions to the Tallahassee Police Department, which did not respond to questions Saturday.

In YouTube videos posted over a three-day period in August 2014, Beierle identified with "involuntary celibates," railed against interracial dating and portrayed women and girls throughout his life as vindictive for refusing to go out with him.

He expressed sympathy with Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in Isla Vista, Calif., only three months before Beierle recorded the videos. Rodger had himself expressed his disgust at women online and urged "incels" -- a shorthand for involuntary celibates -- to fight back.

Among Beierle's videos were diatribes about what he called the "Plight of the Adolescent Male" and the "Dangers of Diversity." In another video, he castigates girls for not understanding what it's like for adolescent males to deal with the expectations of sex and dating.

"I don't think a female can ever understand the societal pressure that's put on an adolescent male to unburden himself of this stigma that society's put on him," he said. "This virginity burden."

On a LinkedIn profile, Scott Beierle said he was a deputy director for supply and logistics for the Army from 2008 to 2010. He said he distributed military resources, and also served as a "senior field artillery officer."

An Army spokesman said he was seeking to verify Beierle's service record.

A Section on 11/04/2018

Upcoming Events