UPDATE: I just got word from Dr. Christy, see below
This just happened late today and details are still sketchy and I know many are concerned about Dr. John Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama in Hunstville and whether they were victims of the shooting that has left three dead.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/three_dead_one_injured_in_shoo.html
The shooting occurred in the Shelby Center for Science and Technology, apparently in the Biology Dept according to reports from the Huntsville Times.
Dr. Christy and Dr. Spencer work in the Cramer Research Hall across the street, marked “A” on the map below, note the marker for “State Climatologist”:
While I have not been in touch with Dr.’s Spencer and Christy yet, I have no reason to believe they were in the Shelby building at the time of the shooting
I’ll post updates as they become available.
UPDATE:
Al.com confirms this was a biology professor shooting up a biology faculty meeting:
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/biology_professor_accused_in_u.html
UPDATE2: Dr. Christy responds to my message:
We’re OK. Evidently a biology professor essentially shot the entire
department at a faculty meeting after learning she was denied tenure.
At the time, I was being taped at a TV station across town by John
Coleman (remotely from San Diego) when they came in with breaking news
about a shooting at UAH.
John C
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Our prayers go out to the families of those killed, whomever they are. I do hope that Dr’s Christy and Spencer are safe and sound.
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.
http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=11978812
Sigh. This isn’t the first shooting incident at UAH if I remember correctly.
Oh, no 🙁
Fox news reported that the shooting happened in the Shelby building. That’s east of the building you marked with an A.
This was posted (by a reader) below the news article… may or may not be accurate…
3 dead, 1 GSW. One shooter caught. SWAT checking building. Building on lockdown. UAH mandatory emergency notification system has yet to notify students of shooting.
Speculation: Shooter was female biology teacher wearing a black/pink sweater who was refused tenure this morning. All victims biology faculty.
I’ll be concerned if you are pointing out that I should be. Most campuses are pretty big, so I would not automatically make such an association, though I appreciate the reminder that they work there.
I did not recall correctly — was thinking of…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_Lu
I hope they are ok. Even if they are physically fine, they probably know the victims,and it must be quite scary to have something like this happen where you work. My Prayers for the victims and their families.
Al.com confirms this was a biology professor shooting up a biology faculty meeting:
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/biology_professor_accused_in_u.html
Very sad, Indeed, John…
You know, I’m none too squeamish regarding soldiers shooting soldiers, but opening fire on teachers? In a school? As a teacher? Poor decision making.
On that score, I’d say things were going rather poorly of late, that perhaps society at large were about to fail utterly, but this sort of thing seems mostly consistent with the spinning of planet earth. Just another fractal curve in contemporary news. Nothing to see, here.
Excuse me.
Dr. Christy’s daughter is a FB friend and she has reported that her dad is ok.
This is very sad. While I do not know the circumstances, these days and times are tough. However, tenure means security. If this woman did not get tenure, this means she was denied security. She may also have been denied defacto peer confidence. This is all so relative to what a person goes through while trying to achieve professional excellence. Its possible she could not tolerate the rejection and attacked those she believed were responsible.
Einstien once said, “Where evil exists, God is absent”. My heart says that “If we as a society were’nt so damned determined to block the presence of “God” in the lives of people that someday this sort of thing would be less common.
I retreat in prayer.
The UAH website is down (traffic spike?).
This is very sad.
Glad to hear Christy and Spencer are safe! Thoughts and prayers for those affected and their families
Female spree shooter… how odd
Hmm, when it comes to global warming and its suporters, it is a sign of things to come………… The current Climate change scenareo is a scam.
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves”.
Winston Churchill.
Scientists going postal due to lack of tenure? Yikes.
Does that mean that she had the weapon before knowing that she wasn’t going to get tenure or did she always carry a gun? Hmm…
This is especially traumatic to Huntsville/Madison because we had a murder at one of our middle schools just last Friday. Just terrible.
This is why all university staff members should be allowed to conceal carry. If someone else was armed maybe three people would not be dead. Tragic.
OMG wow tenure is serious business. She might have been putting up with a lot of BS just to that shot at tenure. Tenure is kind of idiotic though. It’s perpetual job security that shouldn’t exist. Some of the university policies are just strange and foreign to those on the outside world.
The deepest regards of sympathy go out to the victims and their respective families.
Well it’s good to know that those we have some knowledge of are safe; but that is beside the point. It simply isn’t tolerable that ANY academic staff at any school; should be ever at risk for this kind of action.
We are not animals; and this kind of reaction to adverse news just is not excusable for any reason.
Our thoughts go out to those affected by this crazyness.
Really poor people skills, telling someone at a faculty meeting that they’ve been denied tenure. Don’t get me wrong, most people would brave it out or at worst brust into tears — going on a shooting rampage is beyond the pale. I suspect that the faculty staff realized there was something wrong with this particular instructor – but probably didn’t realize it was THAT wrong.
What would have happened if they DID give her tenure?
Tragic. It’s unlikely to be on topic for this blog, however, and I have no enthusiasm for seeing the usual cliches repeated endlessly.
You may be right, Mike, but nothing can be done about it.