The man accused of killing two women and injuring five other people at a Tallahassee, Fl., yoga studio on Friday was the subject of previous complaints related to the harassment of young women, the Wall Street Journal reports. Scott Beierle posed as a customer at Hot Yoga Tallahassee before he took out a handgun and started shooting Friday afternoon, said the Tallahassee Police Department. Customers “fought the assailant to prevent him from harming themselves and others,” police said. Beierle then shot himself, and first responders found him dead on the scene. A man trying to stop the attack said he wrestled with the attacker after his gun jammed, a move credited with giving others time to flee the rampage, the Associated Press reports.
Police described Beierle as a 40-year-old graduate of Florida State University and military veteran. He lived in Deltona, Fl., but was staying in a hotel in Tallahassee. Investigators were still trying to determine his motive and whether he had any connection to the victims or the yoga studio. Beierle appeared to have made a series of YouTube videos in 2014 in which he ranted against women and blacks. The YouTube account in question was terminated this weekend. YouTube is typically alerted to troublesome content when users report it. A spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department said “multiple search warrants have been obtained on the assailant’s electronic devices and all social media profiles.” The police identified those killed as Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, a faculty member at Florida State University’s College of Medicine, and Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student at FSU. Four other women and a man suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening.