Breaking: 3 dead in University of Alabama Huntsville campus shooting; Update: Live video updates added; Update: Shooter was faculty member denied tenure today
posted at 6:21 pm on February 12, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Not too many details on this yet, but it’s another tragic story from a college campus:
Officials at the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus say three people have been killed and another injured in a campus shooting. University spokesman Ray Garner says a woman is in custody but he could not identify her or any of the victims.
Sophomore Erin Johnson tells The Huntsville Times a biology faculty meeting was under way when she heard screams coming from the room.
The shooting happened Friday afternoon in the university’s Shelby Center, a science building. University police secured the building and students were cleared from it.
Usually these involve disaffected and socially isolated males, not females, so that detail is an eye opener. This just broke, and not too many other details have been published, but I’ll keep my eyes on this tonight.
Update: Changed the headline to specify the Huntsville campus.
Update II: The AP has updated its story to note that there are “several other” shooting injuries apart from the three deaths and one wounded in the original article, according to the mayor’s chief of staff.
Update III: Live video coverage from local station WHNT added.
Update IV: WAFF reports that the shooter was a faculty member who got denied tenure today:
Authorities said a female faculty member during a Biology faculty meeting learned she would not receive tenure. She then pulled out a gun and started shooting.
Update V: Three dead, three injured, two in critical condition — all faculty members. No students were targeted, according to news reports now.
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I read the first four pages and other than one student who seemed to have a bone to pick on the most recent day excluding today, she received decent reviews.
conservative pilgrim on February 12, 2010 at 7:09 PM
One of the comments at ratemyprofessor
Holger on February 12, 2010 at 7:10 PM
She was a member of the Evolution World ‘The Clergy Letter Project’
daesleeper on February 12, 2010 at 7:10 PM
pretty sure it\’s a joke…
ninjapirate on February 12, 2010 at 7:10 PM
Exactly my point.
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:11 PM
I want to know if she was wearing an Obama shirt.
Electrongod on February 12, 2010 at 7:11 PM
Prepare for more of this as we raise the “entitlement generation”.
Scary and tragic stuff.
katy on February 12, 2010 at 7:11 PM
The latest on the 3 faculty members who were shot but not killed: 2 are in critical condition and 1 in serious condition.
This combined with the middle school shooting last week at Discovery Middle School in Madison, Alabama has really thrown this area for a loop.
KickandSwimMom on February 12, 2010 at 7:12 PM
Where did she get her PhD? Someone wrote Harvard on Page 1. True?
conservative pilgrim on February 12, 2010 at 7:12 PM
To add a little to Volsense’s post the shooter at Inskip elementary school (where my grand nieces and grand nephew go to school) in Knoxville, TN was a subsitute teacher who was told his contract would not be renewed. He was apprehended on his way to shoot a former boss who fired him in ’97.
Mini-14 on February 12, 2010 at 7:12 PM
No, but I heard she wants to be buried in one.
/sarc
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:13 PM
Look, I am very Pro-2nd Amendment, but, this “Gun-Free zone” stuff is kinda ridiculous in this situation.
It was an ambush, plain and simple. Those people were going to get shot unless they hold tenure meetings at gun-point or frisk all faculty members routinely.
Lets not try and grind any axes while the dead are still warm.
Techie on February 12, 2010 at 7:13 PM
So much for the ‘angry white male who votes Republican’ meme on this one. Unless NOW wants to make the shooter a ‘victim’ here in some twisted way.
So much for the feminazi thing that only men are capable of violence on this kind of horrid level.
God be with the families of the victims.
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 7:14 PM
You are pretty brave, I would have thought a liberal faculty would find a way to ease you out after that question. Good for you.
Cindy Munford on February 12, 2010 at 7:14 PM
The news accounts are saying Harvard PhD.
AubieJon on February 12, 2010 at 7:14 PM
It’s Boooooshes fault.
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:15 PM
And, she was part of the VRWC to make Obama look bad.
Tell me–does this count as terrorism?
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 7:17 PM
Thanks.
conservative pilgrim on February 12, 2010 at 7:17 PM
This is where Dr. Roy Spencer is. Rush’s climatologist.
I looks like the first responders were there very quickly.
War Eagle from us as well to those at UAH. Our thoughts and prayers are definitely with all at UAH. We know several of the kids that play on their soccer team. Scary.
One of the arguments to not allow guns on campus is because of the ages of the kids. You cannot have a carry permit here until you are 21. It looks as if this woman was over 21. Would have been nice if someone, no matter what their age, had been allowed to carry. Just one of these faculty members being armed could have at least prevented some of these deaths.
freeus on February 12, 2010 at 7:18 PM
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=392617&page=1
Let me show you my shocked face…
Buddahpundit on February 12, 2010 at 7:18 PM
That was a 5/19/09 post, not a post from today where people are goofing on her.
Buddahpundit on February 12, 2010 at 7:20 PM
The tenure clock was probably 5 or 6 years, and she would have known how many journal articles she was expected to have published, what kind of teaching ratings, and so on. In other words, by the time of the tenure review meeting, she would have already just-about known that it was going to be thumbs-down. If she’s like most faculty members, she had been stressing out about it, and working frantically, for the whole last year of the tenure clock.
joe_doufu on February 12, 2010 at 7:20 PM
B.S. If there were no policy against handguns, then she would have thought twice about bringing the gun with her. She would have been forced to consider if the other people in the room were also packing. The way the rules work now, if a gunman walks into a classroom, it’s most certain that he’s the only one armed. Sitting ducks.
LastRick on February 12, 2010 at 7:20 PM
I want to know if she is a liberal (Lefty) and if she is a Democrat. If so, I want to see headlines here, on Fox, on PJTV and elsewhere screaming Liberal Deomocrat In Mass Murder Over Tenure Dispute.
We could being it here, folks.
njcommuter on February 12, 2010 at 7:21 PM
http://media.al.com/huntsville-times/photo/-93b36a383a9e66de.jpg
a picture of her getting arrested….
toenail on February 12, 2010 at 7:21 PM
It would depend. Did she get Allah the people in the room?
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:21 PM
Just about to post that… yep, look at the crazed eyes.
Enoxo on February 12, 2010 at 7:23 PM
Was she truly a socialist? I’d like seeing the evidence, please, to use against liberals. And, no–I can’t accept someone else claiming it. I need to see, either by direct admission or inference from her own writings, she’s a socialist.
Not to be a p*ick, but to use actual evidence against liberals who post here if I can.
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 7:24 PM
Looks like a still shot from that movie “The Crazies.”
And why isn’t local news reporting the name of this woman? What are they afraid of?
Johnson on February 12, 2010 at 7:24 PM
Yes, and she’d likely arrive at the conclusion that 50 yr. old Biology faculty don’t meet the profile of a dedicated CCW holder. I know it’s a wonderful idea of having the Dept. chair out-draw her as she pulls a pistol from her purse, but it’s frankly not realistic.
Also, this wasn’t a classroom situation.
Techie on February 12, 2010 at 7:25 PM
Guess she never ‘got around’ to publishing the one paper usually required for tenure these days?
ElRonaldo on February 12, 2010 at 7:25 PM
Ok, I’ll utilize my little used discretion, but if you want a very macabre laugh, use the link above and look at the latest post.
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:25 PM
Probably waiting to notify families.
Techie on February 12, 2010 at 7:26 PM
Ding, ding, ding…we have a winner. My exact thought when I read the post, too.
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:27 PM
It’s likely she was denied tenure because of the university not having enough financials. I blame
BushObama.Enoxo on February 12, 2010 at 7:28 PM
She doesn’t look crazy to me. I see hate in those eyes, abject defiance.
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 7:28 PM
She has that crazy-eyed look to her. Eerie. Moonbat freak.
Philly on February 12, 2010 at 7:29 PM
Exactly. You don’t want to let the students carry, fine. But there’s no reason to disallow faculty/professors from carrying. To get a PhD, you’re a minimum of 25 or so. You’d be going through a first check with the university to be hired, followed by another background check to carry a weapon. That should be enough to carry a weapon and prevent more massacres.
LastRick on February 12, 2010 at 7:29 PM
No, that’s just done for the victims, not the suspects. Everyone knows who this woman is.
Johnson on February 12, 2010 at 7:29 PM
She looks possessed. Crazy look in her eyes. Yikes.
conservative pilgrim on February 12, 2010 at 7:29 PM
Thank goodness the people at ratemyproffessors are starting to moderate comments.
daesleeper on February 12, 2010 at 7:31 PM
WHNT has reported here that some of the family members have not yet been notified. In fact, they interviewed a black female whose mom was a biology faculty member and she had no word where her mom was.
KickandSwimMom on February 12, 2010 at 7:31 PM
I am in favor of letting anyone carry, as long as they can meet the requirements. Here is Missouri, they tried to pass a law last year that allowed CCW on campus, but it died in committee. Dem. gov. would have vetoed it, anyway.
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:32 PM
I’m talking about the shooter, not the victims. No journalistic reason for the delay.
Johnson on February 12, 2010 at 7:33 PM
Prayers for the surviving victims and the families of all the victims. Prayers for the shooter’s family too.
Wow.
pugwriter on February 12, 2010 at 7:33 PM
From reading some of the older ratings at ratemyprofessor, she is Harvard-trained and a hard-Lefty (also a really crappy professor).
WarEagle01 on February 12, 2010 at 7:33 PM
Dr. Amy Bishop, UAH shooter
AubieJon on February 12, 2010 at 7:34 PM
i did LOL, and now i feel badly.
toenail on February 12, 2010 at 7:35 PM
Most shocking from that report is that the woman has a husband.
Johnson on February 12, 2010 at 7:35 PM
Let’s try and keep our focus people. This is a terrible tragedy for some families tonight. Pray in earnest.
Robert17 on February 12, 2010 at 7:37 PM
The Mods must have felt the same way. It’s gone now.
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:38 PM
So glad I graduated a year ago. College Campi are about to get stupid with senseless security measures.
Johnson on February 12, 2010 at 7:40 PM
Dr. Amy Bishop and her husband invented a portable cell incubator. I wonder if somehow UAH has claimed she invented this on their dime? It happens.
AubieJon on February 12, 2010 at 7:40 PM
This is impossible…it was a ‘gun free zone’….
JIMV on February 12, 2010 at 7:40 PM
yep
OmahaConservative on February 12, 2010 at 7:43 PM
A quick WOS search shows an AJR Bishop who has done work in cell cycle regulation and DNA pathways, with email contacts on the papers that go to the genetics department at Harvard. One other thing makes me think this is her: no publications since 2006 and none at UAH. You’re not getting tenure like that.
LastRick on February 12, 2010 at 7:44 PM
Interview featuring her husband.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3kUD6W8QaQ&feature=related
/sarc
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:45 PM
Bring out the gun control crowd…
nazo311 on February 12, 2010 at 7:46 PM
Wait for it…
Then when it comes out that she is a lefty, Obowma supporter, the gals on The View will argue…
Seven Percent Solution on February 12, 2010 at 7:47 PM
+1
mwdiver on February 12, 2010 at 7:50 PM
She is a strong evolutionist, and she just saw that “survival of the fittest”, in terms of vocation, was going against her. So she got revenge. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
mydh12 on February 12, 2010 at 7:51 PM
College campus == Victim Disarmament Zone
Dandapani on February 12, 2010 at 7:53 PM
CCW should be mandatory…………
Someone armed could have probably saved somebody.
RealMc on February 12, 2010 at 7:56 PM
Gotta wonder if there was also some professional “disagreement” over the ownership of the cell-incubator she and her husband invented.
I think there is more to this story than simply the denial of tenure…
Ace ODale on February 12, 2010 at 7:57 PM
Libs Gone Wild
David2.0 on February 12, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Looks like Dr.Amy Bishop could be the shooter
More info at
http://topics.al.com/tag/UAH%20shooting/index.html
ELMO Q on February 12, 2010 at 8:03 PM
They’ll come out soon as it’s established her sixth cousin thrice removed voted for Eisenhower
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 8:07 PM
Just for the record, she is no relation.
Bishop on February 12, 2010 at 8:07 PM
So you say! What were you doing last night, and when did you know you were doing it? LOL
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 8:12 PM
A very interesting podcast transcript from developers of INq.
The intellectual property issues are discussed, Amy Bishop’s involvement;
UAH holds the original patents. The company developing the product (licensed from UAH) has at the time of the article filed for improvement patents.
http://tiny.cc/VacVX
SarahW on February 12, 2010 at 8:19 PM
Go look at her photo, I do not have one of those stupid pixie haircuts.
Bishop on February 12, 2010 at 8:20 PM
Ah, but the seriousness of the charge…!
(just giving you a hard time while poking fun at libs)
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 8:25 PM
Maybe they were rude to her? “An armed society is a polite society…….” -Robert A. Heinlein
all jokes aside this will serve as fodder for anti-gun f*($ing retards.
whiskeytango on February 12, 2010 at 8:29 PM
I’m not so sure. If this shooter’s great-great-great granny voted for U.S. Grant, maybe. But if this woman ever once voted Dem, the Left will go quiet. Just like they ignored shootings in Canada and Germany, two places where guns are banned.
If anything, this makes a case for concealed-carry, if only to be protected from the radical Left.
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 8:33 PM
Prove it. Are haircuts generic?
Cindy Munford on February 12, 2010 at 8:35 PM
CCW permits are guaranteed under the Constitution of Alabama.If you can LEGALLY purchase the handgun the Sheriff MUST issue you the permit. NO waiting period in Alabama ( The NCIS check with the 4473 is proof enough ) .
Did she have a permit ? I DOUBT IT
Why was her husband detained? Could it be HIS hand gun ?
All of the employment contracts i have signed give ALL the rights to any inventions to the EMPLOYER /CORPORATION
This lady packed a pistol BEFORE she went to the faculty meeting…probably already knew the outcome .
Lots of LEGAL gun owners in Alabama and most own more than one ( usually at least 5 or more )
Just another example that if you make it against the law to have a weapon ( gun free zone ) some one will get shot . A CWW holder would have ended this promptly.
When the truth comes out I bet this woman did not have a permit and went to the meeting intent on killing some one .
IS she an Alabama Native or just another loon / liberal from Harvard?
ELMO Q on February 12, 2010 at 8:49 PM
Seems she went to the meeting armed in the first place. I’ll be curious to what what more comes out, and how much the MSM tries to hide of details.
Liam on February 12, 2010 at 8:52 PM
Of course not, you’re an android….
Tim Burton on February 12, 2010 at 9:08 PM
She looks like
Prince Valiant
jimboster on February 12, 2010 at 9:09 PM
Universities have very carefully drafted parts in the employment contracts on research nowadays, since the patents can be worth millions.
Wethal on February 12, 2010 at 9:10 PM
What is going on in the Huntsville area? Just a week or two ago it made some list of the top 10 ‘smartest’ cities in the entire world. I grew up going into town in Huntsville. My sister used to work at UAH. This is the sort of thing you expect…someplace else. The whole world is going to hades in a handbasket.
pannw on February 12, 2010 at 9:12 PM
Who are you? Joe McCarthy?
Grow Fins on February 12, 2010 at 9:17 PM
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
Grow Fins on February 12, 2010 at 9:17 PM
First and foremost, sympathies for the families and victims and prayers especially for those who died.
I miss a lot at work, don’t I?
Watch for studies about how women don’t have tenure as often as men, or some sort of bias/discrimination in higher ed. Not saying it’s right or appropriate, but it will happen.
englishqueen01 on February 12, 2010 at 9:19 PM
She’ll be out in 6 years. Teaching elsewhere in 12.
Django on February 12, 2010 at 9:20 PM
You shouldn’t need to use examples of crazy liberals to prove your points. Liberalism fails by itself, with or without the aid of lunatic shooters. Liberals have to have “examples” (eg Mark Foley) to prove their points because they don’t have an argument without them. However we have the advantage of history and logic on our side.
NoStoppingUs on February 12, 2010 at 9:20 PM
Wow, at the fighting Here on this blog.
Who gives a flip who she is or what she is about, or what she Was about? Socialist, Conservative, Liberal, blah blah blah
She’s a MURDERER. Nothing else matters.
I hope she gets many life sentences for this.
I despise terrorists.
bridgetown on February 12, 2010 at 9:26 PM
Yep, I’ve had to prove to Auburn that my invention wasn’t created during my time there.
AubieJon on February 12, 2010 at 9:33 PM
So tragic.
TN Mom on February 12, 2010 at 9:44 PM
munseym wrote:
Zinkhan’s dead. He was “suicided” and tossed out in the woods west of Athens.
noblejones on February 12, 2010 at 10:01 PM
Before today I could think of NO good reason to grant a teacher tenure-which only guarantees unfirable mediocrity.Now I can think of one-if you don’t give misfits tenure, they’ll blow your brains out.
MaiDee on February 12, 2010 at 10:21 PM
I work at a large, state university… and I worry more about the faculty members with Che shirts than any kid in the college GOP or Libertarian clubs… in fact, if anything ever goes down, I hope I’m around one of those kids.
All these hippie, peace, anti-gun socialist professors have vicious, murdering, gun-toting revolutionaries as their heroes.
mankai on February 12, 2010 at 10:58 PM
On the points of “How is she going to be portrayed.”
Well that’s easy enough: is she A. Liberal/Democrat and/or B. Part of a PC Protected group of the “Poor underprivileged minority”
Or C. Neither, or she’s a Republican
If the answer is yes to either A or B…. Gee, what do you think? “She’s just misunderstood! She can be reformed!”
If it’s C. She of course will be a racist lunatic “Reich winger”
Razgriez on February 12, 2010 at 11:06 PM
Our faculty departmental meetings are rarely ever this stimulating…
Little Boomer on February 12, 2010 at 11:43 PM
She was denied tenure…therefore she killed 3 people? What?!
I’m sorry, I’ve been mad and devastated in my life, I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone because of it, though.
Rightwingguy on February 13, 2010 at 12:04 AM
Amy Bishop, Detained in Huntsville University Faculty Murders, is Harvard-Trained Left-Wing Professor
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/amy-bishop-detained-in-huntsville.html
canopfor on February 13, 2010 at 12:18 AM
This should surprise nobody. the left has been talking violence for years, and they just keep upping the volume. Remember all those calls for killing members of the previous administration that were found on left of center sites? Or left-wing folks with a violent background now tenured on campus – think of “Bomber Bill” Ayers. So it doesn’t surprise me a bit to learn that it was a left-winger who went bonkers and brought a heater to the meeting. Mankai has it absolutely right. These folks think mass murderers like Che or Mao are praiseworthy. They are a lot more dangerous than the few conservatives on campus.
Orson Buggeigh on February 13, 2010 at 12:27 AM
WOW 1 minute to get to the scene and 5 hours later the “CHIEF” isnt sure about anything other than some folks got shot ?
He doesn’t have the murder weapon or even know what kind of hand gun was used .
HMMMM empty shell casings on the floor would indicate it was a semi-auto.
Looks like this is FULL SPIN MODE
I guess we will no more at 11 AM CDT when the next ” we could tell you if we knew but then again we are conducting an investigation ” along with “yes there were people in the room that didnt get shot we call them a WITNESS ”
Something is not quite right here some of the media will not give the females name and the other half of the media released it minutes after the shooting .The “investigator”
cant even confirm who he has in custody ?
Here is the link to the last briefing
http://topics.al.com/tag/UAH%20shooting/index.html
ELMO Q on February 13, 2010 at 12:41 AM
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