'Please hurry': Frantic 911 calls followed mass shooting at Hot Yoga Tallahassee

Jeff Burlew
Tallahassee Democrat

Frantic pleas for help came in quickly after a gunman opened fire inside Hot Yoga Tallahassee the evening of Nov. 2.

“Please hurry,” said one woman, struggling through tears to describe the nightmare she’d just experienced in a call to 911. She heard three shots, she said. Another voice on the phone said three or four people were shot and down on the ground.

“He came inside the room and he locked the door and he started shooting at everybody,” the woman said. “Please hurry. Please.”

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On Wednesday, Leon County’s 911 office released eight phone calls that came in rapid succession starting at 5:37 p.m. that Friday night, just as people were heading to bars, restaurants and stores at Betton Place. The recordings became public a day after the Tallahassee Police Department finished its investigation and shared its findings with the public.

Police arrived at the yoga studio within three minutes of the first 911 call. Before their arrival, patrons and shopkeepers alike tended to the wounded themselves. They got descriptions of the suspect from victims and witnesses and related them to law enforcement.

The Tallahassee Police Department searches a red Chevrolet car parked at Betton Place on the corner of East Bradford and Thomasville roads as part of an investigation into a shooting at Hot Yoga in Tallahassee, Fla., Friday, Nov. 2, 2018.

One man, who was inside Ricardo’s Restaurant when the shooting began, told dispatchers he went outside to help a woman who’d been shot in the back or chest. He applied pressure to her wound but was anxious for help to arrive.

“She’s breathing,” the man said. “She’s talking. She’s conscious. But she’s really hurt, and she’s bleeding badly.”

“We have multiple units in route,” the dispatcher said. “You’re not the first caller. They’re sending multiple ambulances to you. Just keep pressure on that wound, OK?”

Another woman told 911 she didn’t see the shooter but saw the aftermath.

“There is blood,” she said. “We need a SWAT team. We need ambulances.”

“OK, ma’am,” the dispatcher said. “We have units in route.”

Two women were killed in the shooting: Maura Binkley, a Florida State University student, and Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, an internist and chief medical officer for Capital Health Plan. At least five other people were wounded.

The gunman, Scott Beierle, turned the gun on himself after his rampage. Investigators later learned he was a troubled 40-year-old, who harbored a longtime hatred of women

One man, who didn’t see the shooting but heard about it amid the pandemonium at the Midtown shopping center, made the first 911 call. 

“Somebody came into the yoga studio with a gun,” he said. “I wasn’t there but apparently he shot somebody in the yoga class and shot himself in the head. Oh my God. I can’t imagine.”

The man said he would try to go inside the yoga studio “to see what I can find.” The dispatcher cautioned him not to put himself in danger. He got close to the studio and asked someone whether the gunman was still inside.

“OK, good,” the man said. “Maybe he’s dead.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.