BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Three faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville were killed and three other staff members wounded in a shooting on Friday at a science building on the campus, authorities said.
Huntsville police and a university spokesman said the suspected shooter, a female faculty member, was in custody.
CNN's Alabama affiliate said the suspect had been informed before the shooting that she was being denied tenure at the university.
"There was a shooting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville between 4:05 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. 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," Trent Willis, chief of staff and communications for the city of Huntsville, told Reuters.
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 Centre.
"I heard three shots and screaming," Melanie Gates, an engineering student at the campus, told Reuters.
She was near the exit of the Shelby Centre 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.
(Reporting by Verna Gates; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Cooney)
