Scott Beierle
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Scott Paul Beierle (1978 – November 2, 2018) was an American mass shooter who shot six women (two of them fatally) before committing suicide at Tallahassee Hot Yoga, a yoga studio located in Tallahassee, Florida on November 2, 2018.
Biography edit
Beierle was one of three boys raised in a middle-class family in Vestal, a small suburb of Binghamton. His father was a white-collar office worker, and Beierle earned badges as a Boy Scout, worked as a paperboy, served as an acolyte in his Methodist church and was elected vice president of the Vestal High Class of 1997. But he also openly admired Hitler and the Aryan Nations. His class campaign slogan, against a female opponent, was “Vote Beierle, because we don’t need no woman.”
According to his social media profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, Beierle was a military veteran and former teacher for the Anne Arundel County Public School System in Maryland, teaching both English and social studies at Meade High School and being affiliated with conservative groups FSU College Republicans and 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 for battery, in 2012 and 2016, where he was accused of grabbing a woman's buttocks in both situations.
YouTube videos posted by Beierle in 2014 showed that he identified with the involuntary celibate community while often complaining about his sexual rejections from women. He also sympathized with the shooter behind the 2014 Isla Vista killings, Elliot Rodger, as he too felt lonely and unloved as well as posting misogynistic songs on SoundCloud. Other videos depicted him ranting about African-Americans, illegal immigration and interracial 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. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism lists the attack as an act of misogynist terrorism.
Beierle entered the yoga studio 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 Beierle 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 a vacuum cleaner and then a broomstick to attack Beierle, which gave other students time to escape. Tallahassee Police Chief 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.