The Bishop Shootings

A female shooter was in custody and three are dead. A campus shooting incident occurred about 4:15 pm on February 12, 2010, in Alabama.

Three people were killed and several more injured in the shooting Friday in a science building at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, university officials said. (Also known as the University of Alabama in Huntsville.)

Trent Willis, chief of staff for Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, said several other people had been shot in addition to the four reported, but he did not have an exact number or their conditions.

Huntsville Hospital spokesman Burr Ingram said the hospital was treating three victims. Two were in critical condition and one was in stable condition. It was not clear if the three included the one injured person university officials announced.

Sophomore Erin Johnson told The Huntsville Times a biology faculty meeting was under way when she heard screams coming from the room.

The shooting happened in the university's Shelby Center, a science building. University police secured the building and students were cleared from it.

The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line.

The university posted a message on its Web site Friday afternoon telling students the campus was closed Friday night and all students were encouraged to go home. Counselors were available to speak with students.

The shooter has been identified as Dr. Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist who joined the faculty of UAH in 2003.

Her development with her husband, Jim Anderson, of a "portable cell incubator" placed third in a state-wide competition, and won the couple $25,000 of seed money in a business competition.

Mr. Anderson, also reportedly in custody, is said to be the chief science officer of Cherokee Labsystems in Huntsville.

Dr. Bishop's profile has been pulled from UAH's site, but Google's cache reveals her areas of research focussed on the role of gasses on the central nervous system, especially nitrous oxide.

Her lab was working on the development of a "neural computer," the "Neuristor," which would use living neurons—taken either from stem cells or fish.

She also developed the InQ, a "precision instrument designed to increase the precision and consistency of cell growth in laboratory experimentation."

Dr. Bishop has numerous articles in journals to her credit, including studies in the International Journal of General Medicine and Toxicology.