TALLAHASSEE — Before a gunman shot and killed two women at a Tallahassee yoga studio in November, he had recorded online videos railing against women who had turned down his advances. Police said he also had a history of harassing women.

Four months after the shooting, the family of one the shooting victims, 21-year-old Florida State University student Maura Binkley, wants research to get to the root cause of what can lead people like Scott Paul Beierle, 40, formerly a Volusia County substitute teacher, to open fire and cause mass casualties.

To do so, Binkley’s family on Monday launched a nonprofit organization, Maura’s Voice, which will partner with Florida State University to conduct research about people who are “incels” --- shorthand for involuntary celibate --- and behavior that leads to violence against women, including violent stalking, said James Clark, dean of the FSU College of Social Work.

“The motive for the terrible crime that took place in this city on Nov. 2 was hate. Our motive in establishing Maura’s Voice is love,” said Jeff Binkley, Maura’s father and founder of Maura’s Voice.

[READ MORE: Police: Tallahassee yoga studio shooter and fired Volusia teacher was disturbed, hated women]

[READ MORE: Tallahassee yoga shooter Scott Beierle was fired as Volusia teacher amid complaints he touched, ‘stared’ at girls]

The goal, Jeff Binkley said, will be to influence policy decisions to create a positive cultural change. That includes looking beyond politics and ideology when it comes to addressing policies geared toward addressing gun violence.

“We want to find some of the root causes that are going on in our country, that are really disturbing people enough to do the kinds of acts that happened on Nov. 2,” FSU President John Thrasher said. “I think we can help find that.”

Thrasher said the shooting at Hot Yoga Tallahassee marked one of the worst days of his presidency because it also took the life of Nancy Van Vessem, 61, a physician and faculty member at the university.

“Now, it is up to us to help the Binkley family to ensure that Maura’s voice --- a voice of peace, love and kindness --- will carry on,” Thrasher said.

Beierle was a Volusia County Schools substitute and, for two weeks, a teacher. He was let go six months before he shot up the yoga studio amid allegations that he touched and “stared” at girls.

He subbed 187 times before his firing in May after an incident at Galaxy Middle School in Deltona where he touched a female student.

A report in his personnel file states witnesses saw when Beierle “asked a female student if she was ticklish and then proceeded to touch her at the top of the stomach ‘below the bra line.’”



Before he became a sub, in August 2017, he held a full-time position at Hinson Middle School in Daytona Beach before being terminated after two weeks. Before Beierle was hired in Volusia County in 2017, he was arrested twice for grabbing women in Leon County.

The research will be funded by donations. In a year, preliminary findings will be used to make policy recommendations, something Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, seek to focus on.

“If we can start focusing on the issues that surround hate and violence, from a science-based perspective, it’s going to yield good policy from out state Capitol,” Galvano said.

Galvano, who led efforts to pass gun legislation and school-safety measures last year after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, will continue to prioritize school security during the legislative session that starts Tuesday.

Binkley said his daughter was in the Capitol last year advocating for gun-control legislation pushed by the Parkland students’ organization March For Our Lives.

“Too often policymakers make reactionary decisions without science-based research,” Montford said. “This collaboration will produce some of the most beneficial and effective policies as we find solutions to end violence in our culture.”

News-Journal writers Cassidy Alexander and C. A. Bridges contributed to this story.

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