Leon County Sheriff's Office
The man accused of fatally shooting two women at a Florida yoga studio on Friday night reportedly had a history of arrests for groping women and aligned himself with the incel movement in misogynistic videos posted online. Police say Scott Paul Beierle, 40, took his own life at Hot Yoga Tallahassee after shooting six people, two of them fatally, and pistol-whipping a seventh victim. The two people killed, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and Maura Binkley, 21, were affiliated with Florida State University, the former as a faculty member and the latter as a student. Leon County court records show that Beierle was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges in 2012 after allegedly grabbing the buttocks of two women at Florida State University. He was arrested again in 2016 on similar charges after another woman accused him of slapping and grabbing her buttocks near the swimming pool of an apartment complex where he lived. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges against Beierle in both cases. Beierle reportedly railed against women in a series of videos and songs on YouTube and Soundcloud, and those online postings have now become part of the police investigation. On YouTube, he described women as “sluts” and “whores” for what he described as their “collective treachery,” singling out women in interracial relationships for supposedly betraying “their blood.” Beierle also referenced the incel movement, acknowledging that his self-proclaimed “misogynism” stemmed from repeatedly being rejected by women. A LinkedIn profile believed to belong to Beierle says he attended Florida State University from 2011 to 2013. It was not immediately clear if Van Vessem and Binkley knew Beierle or had any involvement in his previous arrests.