A female US teacher shot dead three people and wounded three others after learning she had been denied tenure at a northern Alabama university, school officials and local media said.
The incident happened at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Friday, and college spokesman Ray Garner told reporters that police had arrested one person and detained another.
“At this point we have three dead, three confirmed people who are dead,” Garner said.
“We have three dead and three wounded,” he added.
Garner said two of the three people injured in the shooting remained in critical condition, while a third was in stable condition at a Huntsville Hospital.
Local television WAFF, citing local authorities, said the shooter was a middle-aged female staff member who had opened fire after learning at a biology faculty meeting that she would not be granted tenure.
The television station said all three fatalities were staff members at the university. Classes on the campus were canceled, and counseling services to the 7,500 students are being offered, according to the school’s Web site.
The Huntsville Times reported that a female biology professor had been taken into custody and that her husband had been detained.
The newspaper published a photograph of a blond-haired suspect, dressed in blue jeans and a gray jersey, being led to a police car by an armed policewoman.
Another university official who asked not to be named said the female suspect arrested was Amy Bishop, a Harvard University-trained biology professor.
Erin Johnson, a second-year student, told the newspaper that a biology faculty meeting was under way at the math and science building when she heard screams coming from one of the rooms.
Republican Senator Richard Shelby released a statement offering his “thoughts and prayers” to students and faculty members, WAFF said.
“I am deeply saddened to hear of this horrible tragedy,” his statement said.
The Alabama incident was just the latest in a series of school shootings to rock the US — most of which have been carried out by students — amid the nation’s ever-prevalent debate about gun control.
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