TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A man trying to stop a shooting attack on a Florida yoga studio said Sunday that he wrestled with the attacker after his gun jammed, a move credited with giving others time to flee the rampage that killed two people and wounded six others.
Yoga student Joshua Quick spoke to ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Sunday and said he grabbed Scott Paul Beierle’s gun after it jammed, and hit him.
Tallahassee Police have identified Beierle as the man who posed as a customer to get into the studio Hot Yoga Tallahassee during a Friday night class and started shooting. Police said Beierle, 40, then turned the gun on himself. Authorities have offered no motive in the attack.
Scott Paul Beierle
Quick said Beierle was able to grab the gun back and then pistol-whipped him.
“I jumped up as quickly as I could,” said Quick, who had visible facial injuries. “I ran back over and the next thing I know I’m grabbing a broom, the only thing I can, and I hit him again.”
It gave some in the studio time to flee.
“Thanks to him I was able to rush out the door,” Daniela Garcia Albalat told “Good Morning America.” She was in the class and thought she was going to die. “He saved my life.”
Two women – a 61-year-old faculty member at Florida State University, and a 21-year-old FSU student – were fatally shot.
Dr. Nancy Van Vessem was an internist who also served as chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, the area’s leading health maintenance organization. She was also a faculty member at Florida State and a mother.
Maura Binkley, who grew up in Atlanta and was a double major in English and German, was set to graduate in May.
Beierle was described as a brooding military veteran and former teacher, who appeared to have made videos detailing his hatred of everything from the Affordable Care Act to girls who’d allegedly mistreated him in middle school.
The videos were posted four years ago, and were removed from YouTube after the shooting.
A woman who filed a police report against Beierle told The AP she’s never forgotten how “creepy” he was.
Courtnee Connon was 18 in 2012 when, she said, Scott Paul Beierle grabbed her buttocks at a Florida State dining hall. She declined to press charges, however.
She learned of Beierle’s involvement Friday when a local reporter found her name in a police report and called her.
“I was totally just shocked,” she said. “Since then, I’ve been feeling a little guilt. If I’d pressed charges, would that have stopped him from doing this?”
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