Woman Opens Fire On University Colleagues
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Saturday, February 13, 2010
A woman has shot dead three people at an American university.
The female attacker opened fire during a biology department meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, killing three and injuring three others.
Huntsville police and a university spokesman said the suspected attacker was in custody, along with an unnamed man.
There were reports from local television stations that the suspect had been informed before the shooting that she was being denied tenure at the university.
Trent Willis, chief of staff and communications for the city of Huntsville, said: "There are three fatalities and three critical injuries and the suspect is in custody. The campus is in lockdown. We are working to save these lives."
Huntsville police said all of the dead were faculty members and a witness said the shooting appeared to have taken place during a biology faculty meeting at the university's Shelby Center.
"I heard three shots and screaming," Melanie Gates, an engineering student at the campus said.
She was near the exit of the Shelby Center when the shootings happened and she said the sound of the shots appeared to come from the third floor, where the biology faculty meeting was taking place.
There have been a number of deadly school shootings in the United States in recent years, including a rampage at Virginia Tech University in 2007 when a student killed 33 people, including himself.