Florida gunman had faced battery charges
Motive still sought after shooting at yoga studio killed 2
Police said Saturday that they still did not know what brought a 40-year-old man to a yoga studio Friday in Tallahassee, Fla., where, they say, 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 in the past, began to slowly emerge.
Beierle arrived at the studio shortly after 5:30 p.m., posing as a customer, and began shooting patrons with a handgun without warning, police said.
People in the studio, Hot Yoga Tallahassee, fought back, 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, said on Twitter on Saturday 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.
Binkley, a senior, was set to graduate in May, said Azalee Vereen, her aunt. Binkley was majoring in journalism and German. She grew up in a northern suburb of Atlanta and was “very smart, very beautiful and just very giving,” Vereen said.
DeLeo said Beierle was a graduate of Florida State and had been staying at a local hotel. Investigators are still trying to determine a connection between the gunman and the victims or the studio, the chief said.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant Saturday at Beierle’s home, and multiple search warrants were secured for his electronic devices and social media profiles.
Court records show that Beierle was charged in December 2012 with battery after a woman accused him of grabbing her buttocks. The charges were dismissed in May 2013.
In June 2016, Beierle was again charged with battery, but the charge was dismissed in 2017.
According to local television station WCTV, the 2016 arrest happened after Beierle was accused of grabbing a woman’s buttocks at his apartment complex.
On a LinkedIn profile, Beierle said he was a deputy director for supply and logistics for the Army from 2008 to 2010. An Army spokesman said he was seeking to verify Beierle’s service record.