Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Woman-hating man attacks yoga studio, killing two women

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Woman-hating man attacks yoga studio, killing two women · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Do you know another parent or expecting parent. Are you
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Speaker 1: to crime Stops here dot com Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
1:35
Speaker 1: I saw several police officer um talking and then they
1:39
Speaker 1: got out and they started running, and uh, probably an accident.
1:44
Speaker 1: And I saw more on kind of cover cops coming,
1:46
Speaker 1: so I probably guess it was probably a shooting. And
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Speaker 1: it went down here, and so more cops come, and
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Speaker 1: I kind of got scares. I came inside and told
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Speaker 1: people that what was happening, and everybody came out here
1:57
Speaker 1: and and started seeing what happened. They found out the
2:01
Speaker 1: reaction that there was a shooter. So I ran down
2:03
Speaker 1: here and told all the next door final shops to
2:07
Speaker 1: a luck up and there's an active shooter. I'm I'm
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Speaker 1: scared because so close to the business is what down
2:14
Speaker 1: in this section of the um the city. There's a
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Speaker 1: couple of robberies that happened before, so I mean it's
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Speaker 1: not nothing new, but still, I mean it's it's scarier.
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Speaker 1: A forty year old white gunman opens fire in an
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Speaker 1: upscale Tallahassee yoga class, killing twenty one year old young
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Speaker 1: lady and gunning down a female doctor, wounding many others.
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Speaker 1: But it was no part of a robbery string not
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Speaker 1: at all. Why I mean, I see Grace, this is
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Speaker 1: crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. The scene
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Speaker 1: was something I really can't describe when the women, mostly
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Speaker 1: women inside that yoga studio realized that they were being
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Speaker 1: fired upon. It was a so called hot yoga studio
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Speaker 1: when a guy comes in and totally mortifies everyone, claiming
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Speaker 1: the life of this twenty one year old girl. Still now,
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Speaker 1: we don't understand why the investigation happening right now. Straight
3:26
Speaker 1: out to Robin Willlyinsky, crime online dot Com investigative reporter,
3:30
Speaker 1: author of Beautiful Life, The c s I behind the
3:33
Speaker 1: Casey Anthony Trial, Robin started at the beginning what happened, well,
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Speaker 1: for some reason that we still don't know what this
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Speaker 1: man's connection was to the yoga facility. It's what's unusual
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Speaker 1: to me is is that he had to know what
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Speaker 1: was there. It's on the second floor of a strip
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Speaker 1: mall in an area right by the f s U
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Speaker 1: Florida State University campus. So if you're just you know,
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Speaker 1: willy nilly walking by places to shoot up, you'd have
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Speaker 1: to know a that it was there on the second floor.
4:02
Speaker 1: You know, you look up, you see those second floor
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Speaker 1: strip malls. A lot of those kind of places always
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Speaker 1: complained that they don't get a lot of foot traffic,
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Speaker 1: so you would have he would have had it known
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Speaker 1: that there would be people there at that time. And
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Speaker 1: he goes in and he just opened fire, starts shooting
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Speaker 1: at people. Killed two wounds five. Nancy, you know, I'm
4:23
Speaker 1: very familiar with what you're saying. I remember the children,
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Speaker 1: my twins would play at a gym maree and it
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Speaker 1: was at the top of a strip center on the
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Speaker 1: second floor, and you'd have to know to go up
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Speaker 1: the stairs and down the corner and around the side
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Speaker 1: to actually find it. So this guy had to know.
4:43
Speaker 1: How together their joining you right now is a very
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Speaker 1: special guest out of Tallahassee who attends the yoga studio,
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Speaker 1: Meredith Manion. Meredith, Um, you know you and I have
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Speaker 1: been friends a long time. I had no idea that
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Speaker 1: you went to this yoga studio. And I note that
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Speaker 1: you are in complete shock when you first heard about
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Speaker 1: the shooting. Did you realize it was your yoga studio? No.
5:11
Speaker 1: I drove home from work around six pm Friday night,
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Speaker 1: and I drive It's right down the street from where
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Speaker 1: I work, so I drive right past it and the
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Speaker 1: amount of police officers around the scene. I just knew
5:24
Speaker 1: something happened, and my heart sank and I just felt
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Speaker 1: like this really terrible feeling. And I didn't learn until
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Speaker 1: I got home that it happened at that yoga studio.
5:37
Speaker 1: Tell me about the layout with me right now. Special
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Speaker 1: guest Meredith Manion. In addition to juvenile judge and lawyer,
5:44
Speaker 1: the founder of child crime watch dot com Ashley Wilcott, JOSEPHS.
5:48
Speaker 1: Got Morgan, forensics expert Professor forensis Jacksonville State University, and
5:53
Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Roby Malinsky,
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Speaker 1: investigative reporter add back to you, Meredith Manion, Uh, your
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Speaker 1: yoga studio that you've been too many many times. I
6:07
Speaker 1: know that feeling when you start driving down your street
6:10
Speaker 1: or your approach your building where you live and you
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Speaker 1: see a bunch of police cars. It's just a feeling.
6:17
Speaker 1: Is that my house? Is that my apartment? What has happened?
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Speaker 1: Tell me about the layout, Meredith Manion. Um. I remember
6:26
Speaker 1: when I first started practicing law, I would get out
6:28
Speaker 1: of court. What I thought at the beginning was too
6:31
Speaker 1: late to go running. I later reversed that decision, and
6:34
Speaker 1: I started going to an aerobics class, and there would
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Speaker 1: be it had glass windows from like the waist up,
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Speaker 1: and guys would walk by from bars and restaurant said
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Speaker 1: just stand there while everyone was doing aerobics. And finally
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Speaker 1: the instructure would just let the blinds down, you know,
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the class. So I'm wondering, could
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Speaker 1: someone walk by and stare into the yoga studio? I
7:01
Speaker 1: mean not really. It's it's a very old building in Tallahassee.
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Speaker 1: It's been there forever, um home of many local businesses
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Speaker 1: that have been there forever. And it's on the second
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Speaker 1: floor on the side of the building. So from the
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Speaker 1: main road, Thomasville Road, you can't even see the studio. Um.
7:20
Speaker 1: You would have to pull in their parking lot. And
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Speaker 1: then it's on the second level, so you might be
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Speaker 1: able to see some from the parking lot, but you
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Speaker 1: have to go up the stairs to the side stairs. Meredith.
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Speaker 1: If you walk up the stairs and walk beside it,
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Speaker 1: can you look at it? Yes, there are there are windows. Um.
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Speaker 1: There's three I think separate studios that are all next
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Speaker 1: to each other. UM. One of them the hot yoga studios. Actually,
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Speaker 1: you walk in there's a front desk and then you
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Speaker 1: go into a room behind that, so you actually can't
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Speaker 1: see inside that particular studio, the one if you door
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Speaker 1: down the aerial yoga, which was not where it was um,
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Speaker 1: that one you can actually see from the balcony. Take
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Speaker 1: a little No, he wouldn't have been able to. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: he had to know it was there. I guarantee you
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Speaker 1: he had been there many many times, staring in those
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Speaker 1: windows as the women worked out at hard Yoga. We
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Speaker 1: are learning that he was quite the woman hater, the misogynist.
8:22
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Megan Wilson was eating just downstairs
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Speaker 1: at a restaurant when the shooting went down. So we
8:28
Speaker 1: were downstairs at Ricardo's eating and all of a sudden
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Speaker 1: we heard like a pop pop, pop, pop pop, and
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Speaker 1: it just kind of sounded like it didn't sound like gunshots,
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Speaker 1: but it sounded like intense something was happening up there.
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Speaker 1: And then yelling, and then all of a sudden, probably
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Speaker 1: within thirty seconds, we saw two girls, um bloody in
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Speaker 1: their yoga outfits that ran by and they actually ran
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Speaker 1: into bart Betton and then a guy ran in there
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Speaker 1: and he had blood all over the side of his
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Speaker 1: head in the shirt, and then the owner of bar
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Speaker 1: Beton locked the door, told everybody to get down. We
8:59
Speaker 1: were at Ricardo's and everybody's out, like just not knowing
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Speaker 1: what was going on. But I said, it's two fatalities
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Speaker 1: or the gun. I mean it shot like six or
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Speaker 1: seven times, and at least they had. Mean there's probably
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Speaker 1: eight or maybe like five different ambulances that are picking
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Speaker 1: people up on stretchers. So it's just scary, like having
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Speaker 1: that close to home, you know, because that person could
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Speaker 1: have come in any of any of place. He leave
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Speaker 1: the door unlocked, you know, it's terrible. I don't know
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Speaker 1: if it was like a domestic thing or what, you know,
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Speaker 1: because why would he have skipped all of the other
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Speaker 1: businesses that were down there with open doors with people
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Speaker 1: and specifically go up to bar go up to the
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Speaker 1: yoga studio, you know. And then the girl that ran
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Speaker 1: in said that he was pacing in and out of
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Speaker 1: the yoga studio and then when it was time for
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Speaker 1: them to all go in there, and just the one
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Speaker 1: girl want to shut the door, that's when he busted in.
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Speaker 1: When he started shooting in. I think people just try
9:54
Speaker 1: to get out as fast as they could you know.
9:58
Speaker 1: It's terrible. Sorry, yeah, it's hard when you have a
10:03
Speaker 1: two year old in your hands too, just to try
10:05
Speaker 1: to keep palm and figure out what we need to do.
10:07
Speaker 1: But they did lock the doors. All the businesses down
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Speaker 1: in the first floor locked their doors immediately. Um. But
10:15
Speaker 1: it was weird the sound it. It didn't sound like
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Speaker 1: a shooting. I guess you just don't know what that
10:19
Speaker 1: sounds like. It definitely sounds like something happened about us.
10:22
Speaker 1: We just didn't know what it was. So terrible, terrible,
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Speaker 1: hate it for those young girls. You're hearing Megan Wilson
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Speaker 1: speaking to our friends at the Tallahassee Democrat describing what
10:35
Speaker 1: went down when a guy barges into a hot yoga
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Speaker 1: studio and upscaled Tallahassee opening fire, wounding many killing, a
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Speaker 1: twenty one year old woman coming gutting down a female
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Speaker 1: doctor all in there in the middle of a hot
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Speaker 1: yoga class. But why so far, no domestic connection has
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Speaker 1: been made that the witness was suggesting, such as, you know,
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Speaker 1: a divorce and it's trying boyfriend and girlfriend, nothing like that.
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Speaker 1: But I gotta tell you something, I think everybody's being
11:06
Speaker 1: way too pc, way to politically correct, Ashley Wilcott. I
11:11
Speaker 1: mean you and I have to get down and dirty
11:14
Speaker 1: in court, dealing with crime all day long. And I
11:17
Speaker 1: have told the twins and I I preach it in
11:21
Speaker 1: in safety classes. When you have a bad feeling, get away.
11:26
Speaker 1: If some freaky dude is walking in and out and
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Speaker 1: pacing into in and out of a yoga studio full
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Speaker 1: of women who are really not paying attention, they're doing
11:37
Speaker 1: their class, why should they be call the police. And
11:41
Speaker 1: I am in no way blaming the victims, no way
11:45
Speaker 1: blaming the yoga studio. They may not have even noticed
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Speaker 1: the guy. But so often as she were like, well,
11:52
Speaker 1: you know, let's not judge, judge and live for Pete's sake, Ashley, Yeah,
11:57
Speaker 1: trust your gut. I tell everybody that us your gut.
12:00
Speaker 1: If somebody feels creepy, it doesn't mean you're judging them
12:03
Speaker 1: as much as it means you're protecting yourself just in
12:06
Speaker 1: case they do something like he did in this case.
12:08
Speaker 1: The second thing I've got to say in this case, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: I don't think we're gonna find out that he knew
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Speaker 1: anybody in the studio, but I do think he specifically
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Speaker 1: targeted it. Why because it was all women customers. Presumably
12:21
Speaker 1: there may have been one or two men, but probably
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Speaker 1: primarily women customers doing hot yoga, and based on descriptions
12:29
Speaker 1: of this man, I think that was his target. We
12:32
Speaker 1: are learning a little bit about the shooter that he
12:35
Speaker 1: definitely hates women, is a misogynist. Listen to our friend
12:41
Speaker 1: at w s B t V, Michael Sidon, I can't
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Speaker 1: process it's it's just the worst. As investigators work to
12:51
Speaker 1: figure out what motivated a gunman to open fire at
12:54
Speaker 1: a yoga studio in your Florida State university, this grieving
12:57
Speaker 1: father of twenty one year old Mara Beingley says he
13:00
Speaker 1: is trying to understand why his daughter's killer would carry
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Speaker 1: out this violent attack in such a peaceful place. Mar
13:08
Speaker 1: truly lived the life of really devoted to peace, love,
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Speaker 1: caring for others. On Saturday evening, we spoke by phone
13:17
Speaker 1: with Jeff Binkley. He told us that he and his wife, Margaret,
13:20
Speaker 1: are now in Tallahassee, where they've been surrounded by family
13:23
Speaker 1: and friends who are remembering their daughter as a young
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Speaker 1: woman who dedicated her life to peace, love and happiness.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's amazing to me. Dr Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist.
13:36
Speaker 1: We hear these stories, we read about them. We try
13:39
Speaker 1: to protect ourselves as much as we can, but the
13:42
Speaker 1: ripple effects go on and on and on. I just
13:45
Speaker 1: learned yesterday morning that the victim daughter, that the victims
13:53
Speaker 1: mom it goes to our local church in Atlanta and
13:58
Speaker 1: is completely devastated. Of course she is. Dr Bober, explain
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Speaker 1: to me if there's no connection, like he wasn't dating
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Speaker 1: any of these women. He certainly wasn't dating her or
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Speaker 1: the people that he shot it, had never been to
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Speaker 1: the yoga class, didn't have a grudge. You can't see nothing.
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Speaker 1: What would motivate a known misogynist, a woman hater, to
14:24
Speaker 1: go in and open fire on unarmed women. I'll think
14:28
Speaker 1: about it, Nancy, When did you ever think you would
14:30
Speaker 1: hear the phrase of yoga studio shooting? Right? What is yoga?
14:34
Speaker 1: It's a place of peacefulness and mindfulness where you can
14:36
Speaker 1: let it all go and feel totally safe. In some
14:39
Speaker 1: strange way, it's almost an act of domestic terrorism. It
14:42
Speaker 1: just shows whether you're in a mall, whether you're in
14:45
Speaker 1: a playground, or whether you're even in a yoga studio
14:47
Speaker 1: that you couldnot feel safe, and so I think that
14:50
Speaker 1: he targeted just like when Ashley said, I think he
14:52
Speaker 1: was going to go to the place where he could
14:54
Speaker 1: create the most chaos and create the most terror and
14:57
Speaker 1: get back at all the women that he's hated his
14:59
Speaker 1: whole life. Well, you know, he's had a long history.
15:02
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot about him yet. It's all
15:04
Speaker 1: unfolding right now. But we know in two thousand and twelve,
15:07
Speaker 1: he was charged with misdemeanor battery for grabbing a woman
15:11
Speaker 1: two women's rear end at f s U Florida State University.
15:15
Speaker 1: Now that's according to Leon County court records we've managed
15:18
Speaker 1: to obtain. We also know that not too long ago,
15:22
Speaker 1: he's rested again on a battery charge for slapping and
15:26
Speaker 1: grabbing another woman's rear end by a swimming pool at
15:30
Speaker 1: an apartment complex where he had just lived. To Robin Willinski,
15:36
Speaker 1: Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter, what more do we
15:39
Speaker 1: know about this guy? Well, he was incredibly in Volusia County.
15:45
Speaker 1: He was a substitute teacher Nancy, working with students and
15:49
Speaker 1: the kids. He was working in a middle school. Deltona
15:52
Speaker 1: Middle School was one of the places where they would
15:53
Speaker 1: call him to fill in, and the kids, uh all
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Speaker 1: say that he gave off a like a type of
16:00
Speaker 1: half vibe. He was aloof he was blank, he was quiet,
16:04
Speaker 1: he was disengaged, he was empty. He was a real weirdo.
16:08
Speaker 1: That's what creepy. Some of the girls said that he
16:11
Speaker 1: was creepy. He seemed out of it. So this is
16:13
Speaker 1: someone when you start to look at the whole landscape
16:16
Speaker 1: of this person, of this man, he was clearly frustrated
16:20
Speaker 1: that he couldn't get a date. He's grabbing women's butts,
16:23
Speaker 1: he's getting arrested for it, and then he's teaching in
16:25
Speaker 1: a school. I mean, how is this happening? How is
16:29
Speaker 1: he allowed to teach your kids in their middle school
16:32
Speaker 1: when he's got all of this going on in the background.
16:34
Speaker 1: Plus one last nugget, he apparently also was an amateur musician,
16:39
Speaker 1: and he was doing songs that he wrote and then
16:42
Speaker 1: attempting to sell them. And the titles of the songs
16:44
Speaker 1: Nancy Homicidal, Impulse, American whore, an American massacre. And when
16:50
Speaker 1: you start to get into the lyrics of these songs,
16:53
Speaker 1: boy did he hate women? I don't get it. Dr Bober.
16:57
Speaker 1: I mean, I've always own and just instinctive way. I've
17:02
Speaker 1: heard other people say it that when you're interested in
17:04
Speaker 1: a guy, look at how he treats his mother or
17:08
Speaker 1: his sisters, how does he speak of them? And that's
17:13
Speaker 1: a real indicator whether you want to get tangled up
17:17
Speaker 1: with that particular guy. Now that's just me as a
17:20
Speaker 1: lay person. As a j D. You're the m D.
17:23
Speaker 1: DoD drove over what is it? Where does misogyny start?
17:26
Speaker 1: Is it when you're born and your mom isn't is
17:29
Speaker 1: a looper? Doesn't love you enough for your like you?
17:32
Speaker 1: I mean, how does it happen? Well, that is part
17:35
Speaker 1: of it, Dancy. You know, your relationship with your mother
17:37
Speaker 1: is the first template that when you come into the
17:39
Speaker 1: world how you relate to women. So if that's if
17:42
Speaker 1: that attachment or that bond is disturbed, it does affect
17:45
Speaker 1: your relationships with women. But this is clearly someone who
17:48
Speaker 1: is weak, who is ineffectual, who is impinite with women,
17:51
Speaker 1: and because of that he resented them and hated to
17:53
Speaker 1: them to the point where it boiled over into violence
17:57
Speaker 1: to you. Joseph Scott Morgan joining me, Professor forens Ex
18:00
Speaker 1: Jacksonville State University, uh death investigator and author of blood
18:04
Speaker 1: beneath my feet. You can get that on Amazon. J
18:07
Speaker 1: Scott explained to me what cops would be looking for
18:10
Speaker 1: back at his home. Yeah, they're gonna look for, well,
18:15
Speaker 1: obviously what kind of attachments he had with with weapons.
18:19
Speaker 1: Did he have a cachet of weapons there? The ammunition
18:21
Speaker 1: that was utilized at the yoga studio, would there be
18:24
Speaker 1: more of it at the you know, at the at
18:28
Speaker 1: his home. In addition to that, they're gonna look for materials, uh,
18:32
Speaker 1: such as reading materials, uh, anything digitally that he has
18:36
Speaker 1: on computers there that it's gonna give you some kind
18:39
Speaker 1: of digital track uh leading you back to these points
18:42
Speaker 1: of interest along the way you had mentioned, Uh, you know,
18:45
Speaker 1: the misogyny. These are these songs that he had written.
18:49
Speaker 1: Was he being influenced by anybody in particular that kind
18:53
Speaker 1: of was a trigger mechanism to set him off to
18:56
Speaker 1: just murder these people in this this tight enclosed air you.
19:00
Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen to our friend,
19:02
Speaker 1: the Tallahassee Police Chief Michael Delio. We have seven total
19:07
Speaker 1: victims related to this incident to have been admitted to
19:13
Speaker 1: the hospital. They are both in stable condition. Three of
19:16
Speaker 1: the victims have been treated and released. Unfortunately, two victims
19:21
Speaker 1: have passed away from their injuries. Their names are Nancy
19:26
Speaker 1: Van Bessem and Mara Binkley, and they've passed away their
19:33
Speaker 1: rooms that were inflicted upon them this evening. In addition,
19:40
Speaker 1: we have identified the perpetrator of this event. His name
19:45
Speaker 1: is Scott Paul Barley from Deltona, Florida. Through the investigative
19:52
Speaker 1: work that's been done with a lot of partners at
19:56
Speaker 1: the state, local, and federal level, we've been able to
19:58
Speaker 1: identify this or early and our continuity to follow up
20:02
Speaker 1: the investigative leads uh for him and what made him
20:05
Speaker 1: come to our community and commit this and his act here.
20:14
Speaker 1: Do you know another parent or expecting parent. Are you
20:18
Speaker 1: wondering what can I give them as a gift? Don't
20:21
Speaker 1: give them another one's a don't give them a plastic
20:24
Speaker 1: toy or god forbid a toy gun that's just gonna
20:27
Speaker 1: end up in the garage. Give them something that matters,
20:30
Speaker 1: and what matters the most is protecting their child. What
20:34
Speaker 1: do you love most in the world? Your children? What
20:37
Speaker 1: will you do to protect them anything? I sat down
20:41
Speaker 1: with these smartest people I know in the world on
20:45
Speaker 1: matters of child's safety, finding missing children, fighting back against predators,
20:50
Speaker 1: and what I learned is so important, powerful and information
20:54
Speaker 1: so critical. I want you to have it. I want
20:58
Speaker 1: them to have it. Go to crime stuff here dot
21:00
Speaker 1: com for a five part series with action information that
21:05
Speaker 1: you can use to change your life and protect your child.
21:09
Speaker 1: Payments starting six. Give that as a gift, not another one. ZI.
21:15
Speaker 1: Find out how to protect your child when you're out
21:18
Speaker 1: of the mall or the store, or the grocery, in
21:20
Speaker 1: the parking lot at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters,
21:24
Speaker 1: in daycare, even online. I'd rather have that any day
21:29
Speaker 1: of the week than a plastic toy or god forbid,
21:34
Speaker 1: a toy gun. Join Justice Nation, Go to crime stops
21:39
Speaker 1: here dot com Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Calass. Police
21:50
Speaker 1: are investigating a shooting at what appears to be a
21:52
Speaker 1: hot yoga studio and then on the top floor of
21:54
Speaker 1: the part at Benton complex. There's about forty to forty
21:58
Speaker 1: police out here and as you and see this is
22:01
Speaker 1: uh it contains seen at this point hearing the whole
22:04
Speaker 1: people have been taken away with injuries, although the extent
22:06
Speaker 1: of those injuries are unknown. You're hearing at the time
22:09
Speaker 1: of the shooting, when they didn't even realize people had died.
22:12
Speaker 1: That's Karl Etters with a Tallahassee Democrat speaking about the
22:15
Speaker 1: Hot yoga studio shooting, claiming the lives of too many
22:18
Speaker 1: others wounded. But why Joining me right now is Meredith
22:22
Speaker 1: Munion who attends the yoga studio. What's it like on
22:25
Speaker 1: the inside, Meredith, and again, thank you for being with us.
22:28
Speaker 1: What's it like inside the studio? Um, inside the Myrka studio,
22:33
Speaker 1: It's it's beautiful, it's peaceful. It's um my favorite m
22:37
Speaker 1: Yrka studio in town. UM, it's hardwood floors everywhere and um,
22:44
Speaker 1: very simply laid out and really good energy. And the studio,
22:49
Speaker 1: Meredith Munion, let me ask you this. You said it's beautiful.
22:52
Speaker 1: Tell me about the layout. When you walk in the
22:56
Speaker 1: front door, what do you see? And what were his
22:58
Speaker 1: options were? Because where could he go? Well? UM, the
23:02
Speaker 1: first studio you can walk into was like a lobby
23:08
Speaker 1: type area. There's a front desk receptionist that you check
23:13
Speaker 1: in with. UM, you sign up for classes on your
23:15
Speaker 1: phone on an app, and then you check in and
23:19
Speaker 1: they have some items there for sale, and then there's
23:21
Speaker 1: a side with some blockers to put your stuff in,
23:24
Speaker 1: and then there's a room back there where they heat
23:27
Speaker 1: it up and you can practice yoga. It's a pretty
23:30
Speaker 1: um good size space, so it can hold quite a
23:33
Speaker 1: few UM students. So when he first went in, what
23:38
Speaker 1: could he see? Could he see an open area near
23:41
Speaker 1: the windows where their doors he can go through to
23:44
Speaker 1: lead to other studios. When I'm getting at where the
23:47
Speaker 1: women trapped in one room, was there any way out
23:49
Speaker 1: for them? Oh? No, there's there's one door in. So
23:53
Speaker 1: even the studio right next to it that they hold
23:56
Speaker 1: classes in, you have the one door, you know, that
24:00
Speaker 1: goes into the studio area where they practice UM, and
24:03
Speaker 1: that could be seen right from the balcony and the window. UM.
24:08
Speaker 1: I read that one of the only man that was
24:11
Speaker 1: taking the class actually got up and started hitting him,
24:14
Speaker 1: and some of the women were able to get around
24:16
Speaker 1: him and escape. But there's just that one door for
24:19
Speaker 1: them to get out of. Wow. I did not realize
24:22
Speaker 1: that there was an actual hero in there. So merrideth
24:25
Speaker 1: money and tell me about the clientele? Are the all
24:27
Speaker 1: FSU students mostly or who goes there? It's such a
24:30
Speaker 1: variety of people. I mean, myself and a few of
24:33
Speaker 1: my friends, UM, some other people I know that are
24:36
Speaker 1: you know, professional young professionals, UM, all the way up
24:41
Speaker 1: to UM senior citizens, and then all the way down
24:44
Speaker 1: to college students. I mean, there is no discrimination. There's
24:50
Speaker 1: all types of people that go there. Is it largely women?
24:53
Speaker 1: I assume it's largely women's. It's largely women. It is
24:57
Speaker 1: largely women. But I guess that one man once in
25:00
Speaker 1: this Meredith Minion, how close is it to the f
25:04
Speaker 1: s U campus? Um? Not very Um. It's in the
25:10
Speaker 1: midtown area of Tallahassee. So I would say to get
25:14
Speaker 1: to campus it would probably be fifty minutes. Let me
25:18
Speaker 1: ask you this, Meredith. So it's in the midtown area.
25:20
Speaker 1: Is that where you're uh your salon, where you were?
25:24
Speaker 1: Is that the midtown area you're talking about? Yeah, gotcha.
25:28
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting the way he did this to
25:31
Speaker 1: Ashley Wilcott, judge lawyer, founder child crime watch dot com.
25:34
Speaker 1: He was darting in and out and pacing around at
25:38
Speaker 1: the front desk apparently. I mean, right then, if they
25:41
Speaker 1: had a bad feeling about him, I think that police
25:44
Speaker 1: should have been called. What we're learning is he basically
25:46
Speaker 1: had them all herded into one studio where they couldn't
25:49
Speaker 1: get out. Catch this. Ashley. He had prior military service.
25:53
Speaker 1: We believe he lived in Deltona, Florida, but he'd been
25:56
Speaker 1: staying at a hotel in Tallahassee catch this. He graduated
26:00
Speaker 1: from Florida State. He was arrested there twice, as we know,
26:04
Speaker 1: both for harassing women. And he had his history of
26:08
Speaker 1: misogynistic and racist views. There's a series of videos he posted,
26:13
Speaker 1: and he would rant against women and minorities. He hated police,
26:16
Speaker 1: he hated the army, all these people he believed had
26:20
Speaker 1: done him wrong. There's American Massacre is one of his lyrics.
26:24
Speaker 1: Another is my Frau line, and he talks about a
26:27
Speaker 1: failed relationship. And in them Barely is sitting there going
26:33
Speaker 1: droning on and on in a very dim bedroom and
26:39
Speaker 1: unmade bed, a pile of cardboard boxes in the background,
26:43
Speaker 1: and he's whining that he can't connect with women. Okay,
26:48
Speaker 1: what does that tell you? Listen, Nancy, it tells me
26:51
Speaker 1: a couple of things. First of all, but Galic's got issues.
26:54
Speaker 1: But second of all, you know the juvenile court judge.
26:56
Speaker 1: I say this a lot. The Delinque with kids that
26:59
Speaker 1: I see have had things happened to them as a
27:01
Speaker 1: younger child. So what happened to this guy? Somebody had
27:05
Speaker 1: to have recognized he had some idiosyncrasies that were not
27:08
Speaker 1: good and could have been dangerous. Why was he never
27:11
Speaker 1: Why was there no treatment? What happened to him? How
27:14
Speaker 1: does people treat him that he turns to violence? Listen
27:17
Speaker 1: to this Dr Daniel Bober forensic psychiatrists. In some of
27:20
Speaker 1: his I hate to even call them lyrics, but I
27:23
Speaker 1: guess I will. The videos he posted on YouTube sitting
27:26
Speaker 1: there in his darkened bedroom, on his unmade bed. I mean,
27:29
Speaker 1: you know what, if you're going to date somebody, please
27:31
Speaker 1: find out if they've posted anything and see what it is.
27:33
Speaker 1: He calls women sluts, horrors, he talks about ripping their
27:38
Speaker 1: heads off. I mean, Dr Bober, and this guy's a
27:42
Speaker 1: substitute teacher. Didn't anybody ever go check him out online
27:44
Speaker 1: before they let him teach classes? For Pete's sake, you
27:46
Speaker 1: would think they would have Nancy. But you know, I'm
27:48
Speaker 1: also a child psychiatrists in addition to being a forensic psychiatrist,
27:51
Speaker 1: and I can just tell you that this is someone
27:53
Speaker 1: who clearly had, as Ashley said, some sort of adverse
27:56
Speaker 1: childhood experiences, whether it was bullying or a mother who
27:59
Speaker 1: would end in him, or an alcoholic potter. Because clearly
28:03
Speaker 1: when the tracks were laid down, they were laid down wrong.
28:05
Speaker 1: And he just had a lot of issues with the world,
28:08
Speaker 1: and clearly was rejected by women, and uh just was
28:11
Speaker 1: full of hate. Well. In his postings, he also states
28:15
Speaker 1: that he admired Elliott Roger. I don't know if you
28:18
Speaker 1: remember him, the so called Virgin Killer, because he had
28:22
Speaker 1: been celibrate his whole life. It would post all of
28:25
Speaker 1: these videos about why isn't she with me? I've got
28:29
Speaker 1: this BMW and I've got all this money, Why won't
28:32
Speaker 1: she date me? Why is she with these all these loserers?
28:35
Speaker 1: He would post video after video after video about that
28:39
Speaker 1: and ended up gunning down people. This guy um has
28:44
Speaker 1: exhibited admiration for the so called virgin killer, also for
28:49
Speaker 1: George Sedini, a gunman who murdered three women at a
28:53
Speaker 1: gym outside of Pittsburgh. Now, if those are the people
28:57
Speaker 1: he admires, what is that to all? You? Dr bober
29:00
Speaker 1: And how come where he was teaching didn't know he
29:04
Speaker 1: had been banned from the FSU campus. It's not unusual
29:07
Speaker 1: from mass shooters to worship people. We've seen this in
29:10
Speaker 1: a lot of the school shooters more recently. Uh. They
29:13
Speaker 1: commiserate with them, They find them to be heroes, to
29:16
Speaker 1: be profits of some sort, and they want to emulate
29:18
Speaker 1: them because those are the only people they feel close
29:20
Speaker 1: to and connected to, because they can't connect with people
29:23
Speaker 1: who are pro social because they don't feel like they
29:26
Speaker 1: understand them or get them. What does it mean to you,
29:27
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morrigan. I know his misogynst that does not
29:30
Speaker 1: make him insane. He basically had the women herded into
29:34
Speaker 1: one room from which they could not escape. When you
29:36
Speaker 1: think about a yoga studio, Nancy, Uh, this this environment
29:40
Speaker 1: is wide open. Once you get you got what's referred
29:42
Speaker 1: to as one point of egress, as as your friend
29:45
Speaker 1: had mentioned just a moment ago, one point. And this
29:48
Speaker 1: is the really scary thing and terrifying thing about this
29:51
Speaker 1: this area. It's like a big fish bowl. Uh. And
29:54
Speaker 1: there's no points of cover. That means there's no walls
29:56
Speaker 1: to get behind, there's no furniture to get behind, there
29:59
Speaker 1: is absolutely nothing. So it is uh like like a
30:04
Speaker 1: big fish bowl where people you know, where these terrified
30:07
Speaker 1: patrons are in their screaming. You can imagine their smoke.
30:11
Speaker 1: There's loud bangs going on, and they don't know where
30:13
Speaker 1: to go, and there's people that are injured. So it's
30:15
Speaker 1: a terrifying chaotic messa. Listen to tallahansee police Chief Michael Delia.
30:20
Speaker 1: Emergency responders were here within minutes, about three or three
30:23
Speaker 1: and a half minutes the first officers arrived on the scene.
30:26
Speaker 1: When they arrived, the gunmen was deceased on scene, and
30:31
Speaker 1: we had at that time we had now haven't identified
30:35
Speaker 1: six other victims that received gunshot wounds, and then we
30:39
Speaker 1: also have a victim who was actually pistol lipped. There
30:43
Speaker 1: are indications that several people inside fought back and tried
30:47
Speaker 1: to not only save themselves with other people, which is
30:50
Speaker 1: a testament to our courage, the people who don't just
30:54
Speaker 1: turn and run, the strength of our community, and this
30:56
Speaker 1: spirit of those people trying to help and stay even
30:58
Speaker 1: protect others. The fift Dumboody High School graduate wasn't just
31:02
Speaker 1: a great friend. She was also a superstar in the classroom.
31:05
Speaker 1: Her father told us that she earned an academic scholarship
31:08
Speaker 1: to f s U and was in the running for
31:10
Speaker 1: a full Bright scholarship. She planned to graduate in May
31:13
Speaker 1: with a double major in journalism in German, but her
31:16
Speaker 1: real passion, her father told us, giving back to her community.
31:20
Speaker 1: Her last conversation, she's so excited about. Uh. The teach
31:23
Speaker 1: for America. Jeff says his daughter may be gone, but
31:26
Speaker 1: now he's hoping her tragedy will lead to change, and
31:29
Speaker 1: that be a vehicle for for change to stem the
31:33
Speaker 1: tide of violence that threatens to literally overwhelm our society.
31:39
Speaker 1: Here hearing our friend at w s B t V UH,
31:42
Speaker 1: Michael Sidon speaking to Mar's dad, Jeff Bankley overwhelming, Uh
31:51
Speaker 1: morning and really fear now instilled in the Tallahassee community
31:56
Speaker 1: after this yoga studio was attacked by a lone gunman,
32:01
Speaker 1: Scott Paul be eerily. And what we're learning is he
32:05
Speaker 1: identified with quote involuntary celibates, in voluntary celibates who want
32:11
Speaker 1: a sex relationship with women but can't have one. And
32:14
Speaker 1: he goes online and he tells personal stories of rejection. Okay,
32:17
Speaker 1: that's a big no no. You don't want a guy
32:19
Speaker 1: going online talking about everybody that's rejected him. He names
32:23
Speaker 1: multiple women by name and says how they had wronged him. Quote.
32:28
Speaker 1: Made one date, didn't show up, made another date, didn't
32:32
Speaker 1: show up, kept making excuses. I could have ripped her
32:35
Speaker 1: head off, he writes. He expresses um admiration and he
32:42
Speaker 1: identifies with and empathizes with the so called virgin shooter
32:47
Speaker 1: Elliott Roger spoiled Rich Bratt who killed six people in
32:52
Speaker 1: Illa Vista, California. It was three months before Beerily, this
32:57
Speaker 1: hot yoga studio shooter recorded his video, and Roger, the
33:01
Speaker 1: Virginess Shooter, had say that he was disgusted with women
33:05
Speaker 1: and he urged in cells, as he calls them, involuntary
33:11
Speaker 1: celibates to fight back against women that reject them. He
33:17
Speaker 1: goes on and be early wise and rants about uh
33:22
Speaker 1: interracial dating. He talks just horribly about African Americans as
33:28
Speaker 1: well as women. We know that he had trouble in
33:31
Speaker 1: the army after something went down in Amsterdam, and in Amsterdam,
33:37
Speaker 1: according to reports, for women complained about him, and his
33:42
Speaker 1: quote on his online was quote I got to rollity
33:47
Speaker 1: for their sensibilities. I can only imagine. He moved from
33:53
Speaker 1: New York to Tallahassee back in two thousand and eleven,
33:57
Speaker 1: and we know he's had one problem after the next
34:00
Speaker 1: attacking one woman grabbing her from behind in the FSU
34:04
Speaker 1: dining hall. Oh wow, the charges were dismissed. Imagine that
34:08
Speaker 1: isn't that the way Ashley willcot. You'll look back and
34:11
Speaker 1: you see charge after charge after charge dismissed and nobody
34:14
Speaker 1: did anything about it. That's the worst part in this case.
34:17
Speaker 1: There were two separate incidents whether we're charges dismissed, And
34:20
Speaker 1: you're right, Nancy, you know as well as I do.
34:22
Speaker 1: If a prosecutor dismisses charges and then there's another event,
34:26
Speaker 1: this person is likely to continue to commit crime, and
34:30
Speaker 1: this one it became a terrific Well, listen to this
34:33
Speaker 1: from the timeline that I can piece together. He moved
34:35
Speaker 1: from New York to Tallahassee in two thousand eleven. He
34:38
Speaker 1: didn't make it long. In two thousand twelve, he was
34:40
Speaker 1: charged with grabbing a lady from behind on a rear
34:43
Speaker 1: rend at the f s U dining hall on campus.
34:47
Speaker 1: Charges dismissed. Okay hold on the charge. Those charges dismissed.
34:51
Speaker 1: In two thousand. Two thousand and fourteen, he's charged with
34:55
Speaker 1: trespassing into dining hall. He was given p t I
34:58
Speaker 1: pretty trial intervene Shan. You know what happens at the
35:02
Speaker 1: end of that. Your case is dismissed. Okay. Then he
35:05
Speaker 1: was charged with battery in two thousand sixteen that was dismissed.
35:09
Speaker 1: In that case, he apparently had approached a woman laying
35:13
Speaker 1: out getting a tent at a pool, complimented her figure
35:17
Speaker 1: and offered to put sunscreen on her rear end. Okay,
35:21
Speaker 1: of course she said no, who wouldn't, and he grabbed
35:25
Speaker 1: her anyway, even though she said no. Now this is
35:29
Speaker 1: all in the police report, so all the warning signs
35:32
Speaker 1: were there. He was banned from f s U campus.
35:36
Speaker 1: He had one charge after the next, after the next,
35:38
Speaker 1: after the next, dismissed. I don't know what yet. I
35:40
Speaker 1: don't know yet, but I'm gonna find out what happened
35:43
Speaker 1: in New York while he fled New York. But still
35:46
Speaker 1: nothing was done. And he meets this gorgeous young girl,
35:51
Speaker 1: miss Binkley, who's a senior in f s you set
35:54
Speaker 1: to graduate studying journalism in German and she's dead. You know,
36:03
Speaker 1: all the warning signs were there, Dr Daniel Boberg, but
36:07
Speaker 1: nothing was done. Yeah, Nancy, you're right. I mean, this
36:10
Speaker 1: is like what we talked about. When you say connecting
36:12
Speaker 1: the dots, I mean there was like a whole trail
36:14
Speaker 1: of redcrumbs leading up to this incident. And had someone
36:17
Speaker 1: intervened and done something about it and actually prosecuted this guy,
36:21
Speaker 1: I think the outcome would have been different. And another
36:23
Speaker 1: woman dead as well, a lady doctor, doctor van Vessem,
36:28
Speaker 1: she's dead as well. I mean, I don't know how
36:30
Speaker 1: that gaping hole can be filled in her family's life
36:33
Speaker 1: and in the community. Joe Scott Morgan, could you explain
36:36
Speaker 1: to me the nature of the scene and why he
36:38
Speaker 1: would pick that location. Uh, you know, I'm I'm I'm
36:42
Speaker 1: fascinated by this, Nancy, because it is in the sequestered
36:45
Speaker 1: area where it's a it's not on the bottom floor,
36:47
Speaker 1: it's up on the top level and and and back
36:51
Speaker 1: some you know, not not a lot of folks are
36:53
Speaker 1: going to be aware. And this is not near campus. Uh,
36:55
Speaker 1: this is well off campus. It's you mentioned someone mentioned
36:59
Speaker 1: earlier about traffic areas. You would have to specifically go there.
37:03
Speaker 1: So in my estimation, uh, he he would have in
37:07
Speaker 1: this context been very well aware of this, been watching
37:10
Speaker 1: this area, the scene itself when you get in there. Uh,
37:14
Speaker 1: for all intents and purposes is total chaos. Uh. The
37:19
Speaker 1: what the police will be faced with and have been
37:21
Speaker 1: faced with in this particular case, are copious amounts of
37:24
Speaker 1: blood everywhere. There will be spent shell casings because my
37:28
Speaker 1: assumption is from the way it sounds, because they said
37:31
Speaker 1: that the weapon had jammed at one point time. He's
37:33
Speaker 1: using semi automatic handgun, so as he's firing this weapon,
37:37
Speaker 1: you'll be expending brass out of one side. So these
37:40
Speaker 1: will be demonstrated all over the floor and it will
37:43
Speaker 1: be total chaos. Not to mention the fact that the
37:45
Speaker 1: e m t s have come in afterwards to try
37:47
Speaker 1: to treat people. So it creates a huge mess for
37:49
Speaker 1: the police to work backwards from Listen to Tallahassee Police
37:52
Speaker 1: Chief Michael de Leo. Theving tlask Police Department responded to
37:57
Speaker 1: nine bock of Hoshill Road in reference to its shooting.
38:01
Speaker 1: Upon arriving on scene, officers found multiple victims suffering from
38:04
Speaker 1: gunshot wounds. Emergency responders nearly provided aid and transported five
38:10
Speaker 1: victims to local hospitals to receive medical attention. The gunman
38:16
Speaker 1: is deceased with the possible self inflicted gunshot wound. One
38:21
Speaker 1: victim has passed away at the hospital. The other four
38:25
Speaker 1: victims at this time we're in critical condition and we're
38:27
Speaker 1: working closely to identify them, work with them and notify
38:30
Speaker 1: their families. At this time, all indications are this is
38:34
Speaker 1: the act of a single person. There is no immediate
38:37
Speaker 1: to our community. Obviously, we're all very saddened and shocked
38:41
Speaker 1: by the events that occurred, but it's important that people
38:44
Speaker 1: understand that there is no immediate threat outside of what
38:47
Speaker 1: has alread occurred here this evening. All all the evidence
38:50
Speaker 1: from point points to a single actor who has remained
38:53
Speaker 1: on seen it is diseased at this time, so there
38:55
Speaker 1: is no additional threat to the public today. Our prayers
38:58
Speaker 1: to the victims, families and all of their loved ones.
39:02
Speaker 1: Nancy Gray's crime story signing off Goodbye Friend,