A female faculty member allegedly killed three of her colleagues on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville Friday afternoon after being denied tenure.
According to local news reports, the shooting occurred at about 4 p.m. in the Shelby Center, a math and science classroom building, after Amy Bishop learned in a biology department meeting she would not receive tenure.
School officials confirmed on the UAH website that no students were involved in the incident.
“There has been a shooting on campus. The shooter has been apprehended,” stated the emergency message displayed on the site Friday evening. “The campus is closed tonight. Everyone is encouraged to go home.”
Bishop, a mother of four and a neuroscientist with a Harvard Ph.D, is originally from Braintree. Police said she fatally shot her brother there in 1986, and while investigators at the time determined the incident was an accident, this conclusion has now been called into question by some.
Bishop and her husband James Anderson were also questioned in the case of a failed pipe-bombing attempt of a Harvard professor in 1993, but the case was dropped and no one was ever charged, a Boston official said.
Anderson, who told The New York Times he was surprised by his wife’s actions on Friday, said they did not own a gun.
Bishop, who is a published researcher and teacher specializing in biotechnology, has now been charged with capital murder and three attempted murders.
Friday’s victims were UAH Biology Department Chairman Gopi Podila, 52, professor Maria Ragland Davis, 50, and biologist Adriel Johnson, 52.
Bishop also injured three others: microbiologist Joseph Leahy, staff assistant Stephanie Monticciolo and molecular biologist Luis Cruz-Vera. Leahy and Monticciolo are still in critical condition at the Huntsville Hospital, while Cruz-Vera was released Saturday.
In the wake of the outburst of violence, some have raised concerns about UAH’s hiring procedures and the need for more extensive background checks.
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