The two victims killed in Friday’s fatal shooting at a Tallahassee yoga studio were Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and 21-year-old Maura Binkley, police said Saturday.
Tallahassee police also identified the shooter, who was found dead at the studio of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, as 40-year-old Scott Paul Beierle.
No motive for the shooting has been released.
Four other people were shot, and one was pistol-whipped, police said. Three have been released from the hospital. Police said Friday that several people in the studio had tried to fight back.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that Van Vessem was a doctor and chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, as well as a faculty member of Florida State University, where Binkley was a student.
“Our Capital Health Plan family is deeply shocked and saddened about the tragic loss of our beloved friend and colleague, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, among the other victims of this terrible incident,” CHP said in a statement.
FSU President John Thrasher also weighed in on their deaths. “To lose one of our students and one of our faculty members in this tragic and violent way is just devastating to the Florida State University family. We feel this loss profoundly and we send our deepest sympathies to Maura’s and Nancy’s loved ones while we pray for the recovery of those who were injured.”
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who was campaigning in Miami as the Democratic candidate for the governor’s seat, left the campaign trail Friday to return to Tallahassee. His Republican opponent, Ron DeSantis, called the shooting “heartbreaking.”
