An armed man who killed two women at Florida's yoga studio was charged with sexual harassment

An armed man who killed two women in a Florida yoga studio and injured five others before committing suicide had previously been accused of harbading young women, police said Saturday.

The authorities said they did not know why Scott Beierle, 40, opened fire on Friday afternoon after pretending to be a client wishing to join the clbad at the Tallahbadee Hot Yoga Studio. The detectives seek links between him and the victims.

The bloodshed prompted the mayor of the city, Andrew Gillum, also Florida's Democratic candidate for governorship, to temporarily suspend his campaign and return to Tallahbadee.

The two deceased women were identified as a student and faculty member at Florida State University.

Police said that Beierle was a FSU graduate who served in the military and that he had been the subject of appeals to authorities in the Tallahbadee area "related to the harbadment of young women ".

In a statement, police said Beierle was staying in a local hotel at the time of the attack and that investigators were also searching his home in Deltona, Florida, more than 322 km southeast. from Tallahbadee.

Police investigators are working on the scene of a shooting Friday in a yoga studio in Tallahbadee, Florida. (Steve Cannon / Associated Press)

Police records showed that he had been arrested in 2012 and 2016 for seizing women's bad. Both cases have been closed, the Tallahbadee Democratic Newspaper reported.

A lawyer who previously represented Beierle could not be reached for comment.

Two women injured in the shootings remained hospitalized in a stable state on Saturday, police said. Two other gunshot victims and one man who had been spray-lashed by Beierle were treated and released.

"There were indications that several people not only fought back but tried to save other people," Tallahbadee police chief Michael DeLeo said at a press conference.

Doctor and student

One of the women killed was identified as Nancy Van Vessem, 61, a medical specialist in internal medicine and a faculty member of the College of Medicine at Florida State University in Tallahbadee.

The other was named Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student at the University.

Their death "was devastating for the family of the former Soviet Union," said university president John Thrasher.

One of the women killed was identified as Nancy Van Vessem, right, a 61-year-old doctor and faculty member of the College of Medicine at Florida State University in Tallahbadee. The other was named Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student at the University. (Facebook, Tallahbadee Memorial Healthcare)

Van Vessem also worked as chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, which described it in a statement as a "visionary guiding force" and as "one of the most respected, inspiring and accomplished from the state and the country ".

The FSU said its research focused on restructuring health care for people with multiple chronic conditions.

According to the Miami Herald newspaper, Binkley had attended Dunwoody High School in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, and was senior at FSU with a double major English and German.

The murder rate in Tallahbadee was a problem in the governor's run ahead of Tuesday's election, with Gillum's opponent, former US Republican Representative Ron DeSantis, accusing him of being weak in the United States. crime.

Gillum said on Twitter that no act of gun violence was acceptable. DeSantis said the shooting was heartbreaking.

Dozens of yoga practitioners gathered Saturday morning for an outdoor session in front of the State Capitol. Called "Yoga for A Cause", the event aimed to help people affected by Hurricane Michael.

The Tallahbadee Police Department posted a photo of the rally on Facebook with the quote "It makes so much sense" and the hashtags #TallyStrong and #OurCityOurHome.