Florida Yoga Shooter Clues; Services Honor Pittsburgh Synagogue Victims
HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. We're learning more about a man who police say opened fire at a yoga studio in the state of Florida. Two women were killed Friday in that shooting, five others were wounded. "The New York Times" reports the 40-year-old suspect posted several racist and misogynist YouTube videos back in 2014. Our Dianne Gallagher has more on the details.</s>DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Federal, state and local authorities are still trying to figure out what the connection is between the 40-year-old gunman and the people who were simply practicing yoga on a Friday evening in Tallahassee. Now according to authorities, 40-year-old Scott Beierle posed as a customer, that he was going to go in, take a class, and then began firing a handgun indiscriminately at people in that Hot Yoga studio. They say that some of the people who were in there trying to attack him before he turned the gun on himself, killing himself. Now there were six people who were shot, one person who was pistol whipped and two of those victims died: 61-year-old Nancy Van Vessem, she was a doctor, an internist, the chief medical director at Capital Health Plan, she also was part of the FSU faculty. And Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old double major, English and German, at Florida State University. Her sorority, Tri-Delta, posted that she embodied the Tri-Delta woman; she was brave, bold and kind. She is from the Atlanta area, she graduated from Dunwoody High School just three years ago. And, again, they're trying to determine right now why. They do know he lived in Deltona, Florida, that he had served in the military in the past and had attended FSU as well. In fact, Tallahassee police had dealt with this man before, with phone calls and complaints about harassing young women there. He lived in Deltona, Florida, a four-hour drive to Tallahassee, got a hotel room in Tallahassee and, at this point, police do know why he came into the yoga studio. They're going through his social media, electronics and home back in Deltona to try to find a connection.</s>HOWELL: Dianne Gallagher, thank you. A mayor from the U.S. state of Utah has been killed while serving with the Utah National Guard in Afghanistan. Brent Taylor had temporarily stepped down as mayor of North Ogden to deploy for a fourth tour of duty. Initial reports indicate Taylor was killed in Kabul Saturday by a member of the Afghan national defense and security forces. The attacker reportedly was killed by other Afghan soldiers. Taylor marked his 15th wedding anniversary last month; he leaves behind seven children. It has now been one week since the deadly shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jewish communities around the world came together for services this weekend remembering and honoring the 11 victims. In a sermon on Saturday, a Pittsburgh rabbi blamed politicians for a rise in divisive rhetoric. He says that he told Donald Trump last week that hate speech leads to hateful actions. Our Alisyn Camerota spoke with him.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Are you scared when you see this building?</s>RABBI JEFFREY MYERS, TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: No. I'm not scared. I'm angry. How dare you defile our holy space? I'm a witness. I'm a victim. I'm a survivor. And I'm also a pastor but I'm also a human. And I stand here and I'm in pain.</s>HOWELL: From Pittsburgh and now to Israel, a vigil held there, a show of solidarity for the victims. CNN's Ian Lee spoke with mourners there, many who had ties to Pittsburgh.</s>IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ra'anana is Pittsburgh strong tonight, despite the Steel City being thousands of miles away, couldn't be closer to their hearts.</s>LEE (voice-over): Avishai Ostrin lost his uncle, Jerry Rabinowitz, at the Tree of Life Synagogue. "When shots were heard, instead of hiding or trying to escape, Uncle Jerry ran toward the inferno, to assist the wounded," his nephew says.</s>RONI WEIL, FORMER PITTSBURGH RESIDENT: This is the single worst attack in American Jewish history.</s>LEE (voice-over): It took a Pittsburgher so far from home and feeling lost to rally the community.</s>WEIL: I felt like my heart had literally just been torn into two. My community, my home had just literally been ripped apart.</s>LEE (voice-over): Her call was answered. But through the grief, a charge to politicians in this midterm season, to unite, not divide, not to single out what makes us different for political gain but embrace our commonalities.</s>WEIL: There is such strength in America, such strength in Americans and Jews and even non-Jews that are reaching out. You know how the Muslim community raised so much money to help us out. There is beauty in America, how other people can help Jews when they don't have that everywhere else in the world.</s>LEE (voice-over): In the aftermath of terror attacks against Jews overseas, many think of packing up. Karen Anisfeld offers a Pittsburgh lesson.</s>KAREN ANISFELD, FORMER PITTSBURGH RESIDENT: I feel safe going back to the United States. But there is a huge tear in society. And the one thing that I think Pittsburgh demonstrates to the world, a light unto the nations, is that a strong community is a fortification.</s>LEE (voice-over): A fortification no gun or hate can destroy -- Ian Lee, CNN, Ra'anana, Israel.</s>HOWELL: Live around the world and here in the United States, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, we talk a great deal about many of the races here in the U.S. midterms but one in particular may hold a key to all the rest. We'll explain. Plus, voter suppression, a serious concern of many voters, one group will tell us their take. Stay with us.