Scott Beierle,40,shot six people and pistol-whipped another after walking into the yoga studio on the second floor of a shopping plaza on Friday night. He killed a Florida State University student and a faculty member before shooting himself,police said.
A gunman killed one person and injured six others before killing himself at a yoga studio in Tallahassee,Florida. Tallahassee Commissioner Scott Maddox says it's the worst scene he's ever witnessed.
Police said Saturday that they were investigating what prompted the shooting,but a series of videos he posted to the internet in 2014 paint the picture of an apparent"incel,"or someone who had been involuntarily celibate,with a seething rage against women.
Beierle had been arrested twice in the past six years by the university’s police,according to criminal records. The first time was in 2012. He was charged with trespassing in 2014 and told he was banned from campus after following an FSU volleyball coach into a gym.
The same year he was detained again for trespassing in a dining hall. Charges were dismissed for both of Beierle’s university arrests,but he agreed to a plea deal after a final arrest by Tallahassee police in 2016.
Scott Paul Beierle.AP
According to a police report,he was living in an off-campus apartment in his late 30s – noticeably older than the other residents – and one day offered to put lotion on a 19-year-old sunbathing by the pool. When the woman declined,she told police,Beierle ‘‘slapped her butt,and grabbed it and then shook it’’.
Beierle posted 15 videos in a span of three days in August 2014. Some have since been deleted. In one video,"The American Whore Pt. 2,"he discusses potential forms of"appropriate"punishment for promiscuous women.
"I would vote for crucifixion myself,"he said."The most heinous crime warrants the most heinous punishment."
In another video,titled"The Rebirth of my Misogynism,"Beierle says that his hatred for women started in eighth grade,when he discovered the"collective treachery"of girls his age. He lists the names of several girls who he said sparked his misogyny.
He said his feelings toward women went dormant until he went to college at Florida State University,when women already in relationships gave him their phone numbers and one woman called the police on him for visiting her at work.
"Again,this mentality (of)'let's just run to the authorities when our feelings are hurt,'"he said."I had committed no wrong. I was just trying to court this particular female."
He also mentions one romantic interest from his college years who he said would repeatedly cancel planned dates.
"I could've ripped her head off,"he said."The treachery that a female is capable of when her sensibilities are offended to me is astonishing. The lengths that they will go to - lying,exaggerating,outright lying."
Beierle,who served in the military and was a Florida State University (FSU) graduate,had been arrested in 2012 and 2016 on charges of grabbing women's buttocks at an apartment complex pool and at a campus dining hall. He was charged with trespassing in 2014 and told he was banned from campus after following an FSU volleyball coach into a gym.
Police investigators work the scene of a shooting on Friday night.AP
His victims were 21-year-old Maura Binkley,a student at FSU,and 61-year-old Dr. Nancy Vessem,a faculty member and the chief medical director for a health maintenance organisation. Witnesses told police that Beierle posed as a customer to gain access to the yoga studio,which was in session when he started firing,according to the Associated Press. Police have not yet disclosed what kind of gun Beierle used.
"Malevolence can idle or it can manifest itself into something,"he said in one video."I believe in karma. I believe in what comes around goes around. And those that engage in treachery will ultimately be the victims of it."
Beierle,who posted videos under the pseudonym Scott Carnifex,also criticises the societal"expectations"of male adolescents in America,who he said are programmed into believing that sexual conquests are intrinsically linked to manliness.
"I'd like to send a message now to the adolescent males ... that are in the position,the situation,the disposition of Elliot Roger[sic],of not getting any,no love,no nothing,"Beierle said in one video,referencing the 22-year-old mass murderer who also expressed frustration at being a virgin and being rejected by attractive women.
"This endless wasteland that breeds this longing and this frustration. That was me,certainly as an adolescent."
After Rodger's,he was idolised online by members of. Rodgers killed six people and injured fourteen others near the campus of University of California,Santa Barbara,before killing himself. He had also expressed frustration at being a virgin and being rejected by attractive women.
One Rodger supporter was Alek Minassian,the 25-year-old man accused of plowing his van into a crowd in Toronto in April,killing 10. Minassian declared the ‘‘incel Rebellion’’ had begun.
Beierle also expressed his hatred for African-Americans,whom he called"disgusting."
In one such video,titled"Dreadlocks are the Black Man's Mullet,"Beierle lists six reasons why he hates African-Americans and their"thuggery"while repeatedly using racial slurs. He said dreadlocks were considered"vogue"only among the"gutter of our society,"and he said the hairstyle made it"tough for me to sill remain an NFL fan,"referencing the National Football League.
He also rails against"mongrelisation"and interracial dating,calling black women"ugly,disgusting."
In other videos,Beierle also expresses a hatred for the police,the"expectations"for adolescent males in America and the"dangers of diversity."
"I don't think a female can ever understand the societal pressure that's put on an adolescent male to unburden himself of this stigma that has society has put on him,this virginity burden and having a girlfriend,"he said."I wish I had someone to talk to me at that age."
Miami Herald,Washington Post