FSU symposium marks yoga shooting anniversary

NSF Staff Report

Five years after a gunman killed two women and injured four people at a Tallahassee yoga studio, Florida State University held a research and policy symposium about reducing violence against women and girls. 

The event last Thursday included a memorial service for the women killed in the shooting, FSU College of Medicine professor Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and FSU student Maura Binkley, 21. 

A news release from the university said friends and family members of the victims, including Maura Binkley’s father, Jeff Binkley, who founded the group Maura’s Voice, attended. 

Jeff Binkley and John Thrasher, who was president of FSU at the time of the shooting, were slated to speak. 

The symposium is geared toward helping counter “hate-fueled violence,” with an emphasis on violence toward women. 

The gunman who killed Binkley and Van Vessem had previously recorded online videos railing against women who had turned down his advances. The shooting took place on Nov. 2, 2018, at Hot Yoga Tallahassee.