Florida yoga studio shooting: gunman made videos voicing hatred of women

Videos appearing to feature Scott Paul Beierle contain racist insults and self-made comparisons to ‘incel’ killer Eliott Rodger

A gunman who killed two people and wounded five others at a yoga studio in Florida appears to have made videos voicing hatred of women and black people, likening himself in one clip to Elliot Rodger, the self-identified “incel” student who killed six people near the University of California.

Friday’s attack by Scott Paul Beierle, a former teacher and military veteran, at a busy upscale shopping plaza in Tallahassee was stopped only when members of the yoga class tackled him. Authorities said the gunman killed himself. Those he shot dead, Nancy Van Vessem and Maura Binkley, had ties to Florida State University (FSU).

It later emerged the 40-year-old had once been banned from the university’s campus and had been arrested twice for grabbing women, though the charges were ultimately dropped.

Beierle, who had moved to the central Florida town of Deltona after getting a graduate degree from FSU, appeared to post a series of videos on YouTube in 2014 where he called women “whores” if they dated black men, said many black women were “disgusting” and described himself as a misogynist.

A Tallahassee police spokesman would not confirm or deny the videos were Beierle’s. However, the man speaking in the videos looks like Beierle and biographical details mentioned in the videos match known facts about Beierle, including details about his military service. Also, the poster’s YouTube username included the word “Scott” Beierle’s first name. The existence of the videos was first reported by BuzzFeed.

In one video, the man said promiscuous women deserved to be crucified and he suggested putting up landmines to keep people from crossing into the US from Mexico.

In another video, the man who appeared to be Beierle likened his adolescent self to Rodger, a 22-year-old who killed six students and wounded more than a dozen others near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before killing himself in 2014. Rodger was a self-identified “incel,” short for “involuntary celibate”.

Tallahassee police chief Michael DeLeo praised the efforts of those attending Friday’s yoga class in preventing further tragedy. “The fact that we had people fight this attacker to help save other people and prevent him from doing additional harm speaks to the spirit of Tallahassee,” DeLeo said on Saturday.

FSU president John Thrasher said of the victims: “To lose one of our students and one of our faculty members in this tragic and violent way is just devastating to the Florida State University family,” Thrasher said in a statement. “We feel this loss profoundly and we send our deepest sympathies to Maura’s and Nancy’s loved ones while we pray for the recovery of those who were injured.”

DeLeo said police were asking for anyone who saw anything unusual around the time of the shooting to contact authorities. He said the gunman acted alone and no connection between him and the victims or the location had been determined. Police would be looking at social media, cell phone records and interviewing friends and neighbors, he said.

A public records search showed Beierle was charged with misdemeanor battery for incidents in 2012 and 2016, and criminal trespassing in 2014. On Saturday afternoon, authorities said he had been “the subject of prior calls for service in the Tallahassee area related to harassment of young women”.

Capital Health Plan, where Van Vessem was chief medical director, called her a “guiding, visionary force”. In a statement, it said: “Her dedication, caring, leadership, humanity and experience made her one of the most respected, inspiring, and accomplished medical professionals in the state and country. Our hearts are filled with sorrow and prayers for her family. We all have been so blessed to have Nancy in our lives.”

City commissioner Scott Maddox visited the scene. He said on Facebook: “In my public service career I have had to be on some bad scenes. This is the worst. Please pray.”