Deadly Shooting at University of Alabama - 02-12-10

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Feb. 12) -- A woman opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus Friday, killing three biology professors and injuring three other employees at the school, officials said.

The shooter was caught outside the Shelby Center, a science building, without incident, and no students were harmed, according to university spokesman Ray Garner. Local media reported the shooter was a faculty member, though Garner said he could not identify her. Officials said a man was also being detained.
Two shooting victims are taken from the Shelby Center on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Robin Conn, The Huntsville Times / AP
Medical workers take two shooting victims from the Shelby Center on the campus of the University of Alabama-Huntsville to an ambulance on Friday.

Police said no charges had been filed and they were interviewing the woman suspect and a man identified as "a person of interest."

University spokesman Ray Garner said the three killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and two other faculty members, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson.

Two others are in critical condition, and a third who was wounded was upgraded to fair condition. The injured were identified as department members Luis Cruz-Vera and Joseph Leahy and staffer Stephanie Monticello. Their specific conditions were not released.

Nick Lawton, the son of a biology professor at the school, said his father was not among the victims, but he did not know much more.

Lawton, 25, was exercising when a friend phoned him to tell him about the shooting. He called his father, Robert Lawton, and found out that he was not hurt, then he let rest of his family know.

"All I know is that my father is OK," Nick Lawton told The Associated Press.

Sophomore Erin Johnson told The Huntsville Times a biology faculty meeting was under way when she heard screams coming from a conference room.

University police secured the building and students were cleared from it. There was still a heavy police presence on campus Friday night, with police tape cordoning off the main entrance to the university.

The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line. The university is known for its scientific and engineering programs and often works closely with NASA.

The space agency has a research center on the school's campus, where many scientists and engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center perform Earth and space science research and development.

The university posted a message on its Web site Friday afternoon telling students the campus was closed Friday night and all students were encouraged to go home. Counselors were available to speak with students.

It's the second shooting in a week on an area campus. Last Friday, a 14-year-old student was killed in a middle school hallway in nearby Madison, allegedly by a fellow student.

"This town is unaccustomed to shootings and multiple deaths," Garner said.

Associated Press Writers Phillip Rawls and Desiree Hunter in Montgomery, Ala., and Jacob Jordan and Daniel Yee in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Deadly
• Shooting
• at
• Unive3
• Dead
• in
• University
• of
• Alabamarsity
• Alabama
• 02
• 12
• 10

[warhulk2]

She's one of the Crazies!

[JTMusics]

lol

[WAlkONRebel]

wait i thought it was only us crazy black people that do all the killing thats what some white americans i.e. rush limbaugh keep preaching that its just us doing the sporadic killing lol . This crazy lady didnt get promoted and she promoted everyone else to their deaths lol ignorance is bliss

[coyote7272]

Some fucked up shit going on around that area... don't believe everything you hear. I got no theories but something doesn't add up...

[justgoplaythatvideo]

omg..she must be some christian or catholic crazy. what a un ironic truthful stereotype. wheres all the trolls talkin crap about religion? guess it only applies to religions you don't even understand are more about peacefulness and taking care of business the manly way upfront instead of using the old john wayne six shooter partnerrr. gufranakah allah.

peace. you are ignorant.

[jxsilicon9]

@operationnorthwoodz

So you have to worry about teachers and students shooting you.

[WAlkONRebel]

Please dont prejudge this. It sounds like another polluted mind by the media please wait for the real facts to come out. check find law. com not nancy grace or cnn or drudge report. PEOPLE WAKE UP the best person to be is a critical one of whats being told to you. -PoorCollegeKid

[browneyes4]

And they all fall down!

[roughcoat09]

Don't rush to judgment She is innocent until proven guilty.

[operationnorthwoodz]

Professor Amy Bishop PhD shot and killed these teachers for firing her, after her bomb plot against a teacher at Harvard in 1993, and after shooting and killing her brother in 1986. This is one week after a teacher and elected commissioner shot 2 principals in Knoxville TN for firing him. The worst school massacre in world history was by an elected member of the school board, at the Bath School Massacre, using dynamite in controlled demolition and shooting the survivors. 9/11 = Inside Job.

[rebbaprr]

Let's not make loose comments at an unfortunate time.

A young professor has been killed by another academic. Academic institutions are highly political places with lots of frustrations amongst ambitious people. US in one of the best places in the world to pursue academics and it is still one of the most civilized places.