2018 Tallahassee shooting

"Tallahassee shooting" redirects here. For the 2020 officer-involved fatal shooting in the same city, seeKilling of Tony McDade.

2018 Tallahassee shooting
2018 Tallahassee shooting (Florida)
Location	Hot Yoga Tallahassee 1950 Thomasville Rd Tallahassee, Florida,United States
Coordinates	30.4672°N 84.2690°W/30.4672; -84.2690
Date	November 2, 2018 5:37 p.m. (UTC−04:00)
Target	Women
Attack type	Mass shooting,murder–suicide,femicide
Weapons	9mmGlock 17Gen 5 semi-automatic pistol
Deaths	3 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	5 (4 by gunfire, 1 by pistol-whipping)
Perpetrator	Scott Paul Beierle
Motive	Misogyny

On November 2, 2018, amass shootingoccurred at Tallahassee Hot Yoga, ayogastudio located inTallahassee, Florida,United States. The gunman, identified as Scott Paul Beierle, shot six women, two of them fatally, andpistol-whippeda man before killing himself.

Criminal investigators attested to the attacker's hatred of women. TheUS Secret ServiceandInternational Centre for Counter-Terrorismconsider the attack an act ofmisogynist terrorism.

Shooting

Scott Paul Beierle entered thehot yogastudio at 5:37 p.m. EDT on November 2, 2018, shooting six people, resulting in the deaths of two women, Maura Binkley, 21, and Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61.Officers responded to reports of gunfire within three and a half minutes, at which point the perpetrator was found deceased.Partygoers in a bar across the street told reporters how they witnessed people fleeing from the studio and that a man in a bloody white T-shirt who ran into the bar claimed to have charged the shooter only to be pistol whipped.This claim was later backed up in interviews with survivors who stated that the male customer used avacuum cleanerand then abroomstickto attack Beierle, which gave other students time to escape.Tallahassee PoliceChief Michael DeLeo also credited the students who "fought back and tried not only to save themselves but other people".

The yoga studio was a part of a plaza that is occupied by restaurants and other businesses. Those eating at the restaurant underneath the studio heard the gunshots and told reporters that the owner came through the dining area shortly after, asking if anyone was a doctor.

Victims

When officers arrived, it was discovered that six people had been shot during the attack. Two victims, Maura Binkley and Nancy Van Vessem, were deceased at the scene.Maura Binkley, age 21, was a student atFlorida State University,and due to graduate in 2019.Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, age 61, was a doctor and the chief medical director for Capital Health Plan. She was also a faculty member at Florida State.

Perpetrator

Scott Paul Beierle(October 6, 1978 – November 2, 2018)was later revealed as the perpetrator by police. According to his social media profiles onFacebookandLinkedIn,Beierle was a military veteran and former teacher for theAnne Arundel County Public School SysteminMaryland,teaching both English and social studies atMeade High Schooland being affiliated with conservative groupsFSUCollege Republicansand We Are Conservatives.Additionally, Beierle has also taught at numerous other schools as a substitute teacher, yet only briefly due to performance issues and inappropriate behavior. In one instance, Beierle was fired for an incident where he reportedly asked a female student if she was "ticklish", while touching her "below the bra line" on her stomach.He had been charged twice forbattery,in 2012 and 2016, where he was accused of grabbing a woman's buttocks in both situations.

YouTubevideos posted by Beierle in 2014 showed that he identified with theinvoluntary celibatecommunity while often complaining about his sexual rejections from women.He also sympathized with the shooter behind the2014 Isla Vista killings,Elliot Rodger, as he too felt lonely and unloved as well as posting misogynistic songs onSoundCloud.Other videos depicted him ranting aboutAfrican-Americans,illegal immigrationandinterracial relationships.One of the videos was named "Dangers of Diversity".

The FBI and the Tallahassee Police Department attested to Beierle's hatred of women, saying he was "disturbed" during the shooting. They further noted he had planned the attack months in advance.TheInternational Centre for Counter-Terrorismlists the attack as an act ofmisogynist terrorism.

Aftermath

Florida State Universityheld a vigil for the victims of the shooting on November 4, while another series of tributes were planned for November 5 with the help of Tallahassee'sDelta Delta Delta sororitychapter, of which victim Maura Binkley was a member.Other tributes were published by the deceased's families and friends through social media.On November 11, acandlelit vigilwas held atCascades Park.The day after the shooting, a yoga instructor of Hot Yoga Tallahassee led a yoga class for healing in the middle of Adams Street.In 2019, Binkley's parents sued the yoga studio and property owner claiming both were negligent in providing adequate safety.

In 2022, theSecret Service's National Threat Assessment Center released a detailed case study of the shooting. The report says the attacker is typical ofmisogynist extremismor male supremacist violence. He was arrested for groping women, wrote violent songs about torturing women, and admired other mass killers who targeted women.