3 people die in shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Doesn't he know that I call the Race Wars around here?

I must have missed that thread

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Which is also true.

I think it's sad that we can't even, as ASTalumna06 said, make an observation without fear of how that observation may be perceived.

For what it's worth, a fb friend of mine mentioned it in one of his status messages, and it concerned him because he is also a young professor of color.

See, when you're a minority, you think about these things. When you're not, you usually don't have to, so you don't.

I care about this topic for a number of reasons so I did some low level Internet research.

As with most academic departments, the biological science department is predominently white: http://www.uah.edu/biology/faculty.html (you can click on each name to see a photo and bio)

So, it doesn't take mensa to beg the question of whether it is a coincidence that someone who opens fire at a faculty/departmental meeting shoots 6 faculty and ends up killing 3 racial and ethnic minorities on the department's faculty. We (other than PiKA2001) aren't going so far as to draw conclusions because that's what investigations are for.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

The facts apparently frightened PiKA2001. He's like any other person who gets a little scared with any mention of race. He overreacts and yells "oh shit! Run for cover!!!" The irony in that is funny.

I'm scared of racial discussions? Now you are the one insinuating.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

I'm scared of racial discussions? Now you are the one insinuating.

No, it's still only you.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

So, it doesn't take mensa to beg the question of whether it is a coincidence that someone who opens fire at a faculty/departmental meeting shoots 6 faculty and ends up killing 3 racial and ethnic minorities on the department's faculty. We (other than PiKA2001) aren't going so far as to draw conclusions because that's what investigations are for.

You are drawing conclusions, you just don't realize it. You talk about leaving it up to the investigation but you've already chalked this out to be racially motivated. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying thats not possible, it COULD very well based on race. We know that she killed her brother years ago and she seemed like she didn't realize that she had opened fire on her colleagues, which leads me to believe she is very f*cked up ( lack of better words). Did race play a factor? Maybe. Was it the motivating factor? Who knows.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

You are drawing conclusions, you just don't realize it.

My only conclusion is you don't read for comprehension or aren't accustomed to such discourse. You are going all around the world just to conclude what the rest of us are saying: It begs the question, there is a possibility, and we won't know until the investigation.

Now go play in traffic.

[starang21]

what were the ethnicities?

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by starang21

what were the ethnicities?

Look at the link I provided.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Now go play in traffic.

Its so rare for me to receive such pleasantries, thank you.

So do you think the investigation will look into a possible racial motive? Open source media is pretty adament on the idea that this was based on her not getting tenure, any evidence/theory of race being involved might end up being anecdotal. I'm interested to know where the victims were seated in regards to the shooter. I'd think that someone in the mindset to kill at random would hit the closest targets first, but if she had specific targets and skipped others to shoot them, that leads me to ask; Did these victims directly decide whether or not she received tenure, or did she believe that the victims "stole" her position? Also, does anyone know if the entire dept faculty was present at the time?

[AnotherKD]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Methinks the profs at Hudson University would do well to look into term life plans...

*snicker*

I love me some Jack McCoy.

[Ghostwriter]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Its so rare for me to receive such pleasantries, thank you.

So do you think the investigation will look into a possible racial motive? Open source media is pretty adament on the idea that this was based on her not getting tenure, any evidence/theory of race being involved might end up being anecdotal. I'm interested to know where the victims were seated in regards to the shooter. I'd think that someone in the mindset to kill at random would hit the closest targets first, but if she had specific targets and skipped others to shoot them, that leads me to ask; Did these victims directly decide whether or not she received tenure, or did she believe that the victims "stole" her position? Also, does anyone know if the entire dept faculty was present at the time?

I personally think she was a fruitcake sociopath who could not stand the idea of rejection or failure. I would be surprised if she singled out people by ethicity but rather believe she started shooting and didn't care who she hit. More than likely they were closest to her when she started the shooting. However, as I was not there this is simply conjecture on my part.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I saw on the news the tape from when the police were putting her into the car. The audio was a little hard to hear at first, but then someone clearly asks her, "What about the people who are dead?" and she replied, "They're still alive," in a rather monotone way.

This is the tape I was talking about, although this audio is more clear than the one I heard originally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBVnGJJ-j-8

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

This is the tape I was talking about, although this audio is more clear than the one I heard originally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBVnGJJ-j-8

Crazy bitch.

She either really had a breakdown that removed her from the reality OR she's staging her temporary insanity defense. "It didn't really happen" "they are still alive"

She was described as "not being able to face reality" and "not being as good as she thought she was." I really hope they don't take her perhaps average craziness and delusions of grandeur and create an insanity defense.

[srmom]

There are eyewitness accounts all over the web today. According to the people that were in the meeting. She opened fire first to the person next to her, who happened to be the head of the department, then she went person by person down the line of people on her side of the table. The people across from her dove under the table and while she was reloading, they pushed her out and barracaded the door. So, it seems as if it was randomly based on where people were sitting.

Also, interestingly, one person, I think her last name is Marietta or something, I'll try to look it up, is credited with saving everybody. She grabbed the woman's leg and spoke with her trying to talk her down. The woman then turned the gun at her but it was empty. While she was reloading, that woman led the charge to get her out of the room. She was the woman's closest friend in the department, and I believe she was African American (by her picture which is on some of the news websites).

Anyway, all that leaves me to believe that it was coincidence and not racially motivated as to who got shot and in what order.

Here it is:

"I believe that she acted very quickly to try and stop Dr. Bishop from shooting again," University of Alabama Huntsville president David Williams told "Good Morning America" today, adding that professor Debra Moriarity had asked him not to talk too much about her role in stopping Amy Bishop's alleged rampage that killed three and wounded three others. "It's just unbelievable that someone could act that way in such terrible circumstances."

Moriarity, 55, is a professor whose lab was next door to Bishop's lab. She was also believed to be Bishop's closest friend in the department.

In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, Moriarity gave a moment by moment account of how a departmental meeting was turned into a slaughterhouse.

The shooting erupted about an hour into the meeting when a dozen people were sitting at a round table. Moriarity was looking at some papers when Bishop stood and fired a shot at the person closest to her. When she looked up, the chairman of the department Gopi K. Podila had been shot in the head and Bishop was firing a second round at the person sitting next to Podila, Adriel D. Johnson Sr., Moriarity said.

Bishop was going down the line, shooting each person in the head, although the sixth person was shot in the chest, she told the magazine.

Moriarity and others who were sitting on the side of the table furthest from Bishop "dropped to the floor," according to survivor Joseph Ng, who described the incident to a friend in an e-mail.

Moriarity said crawled across the floor under the table to Bishop. "I was thinking 'Oh, my God, this has to stop," she said.

The professor said she pulled and then pushed on Bishop's leg, yelling, "I have helped you before, I can help you again!"

Bishop pulled her leg away from Moriarity's grip and kept shooting, she said. Moriarity crawled past Bishop and partly into the hallway when she said Bishop turned towards her friend, the gun gripped with both hands and a look of fury on her face.

"Intense eyes, a set jaw," Moriarity told the Chronicle. As Moriarity, still on her hands and knees, looked up helplessly at her one-time friend, Bishop pulled the trigger. Click. She fired again. Click.

As Bishop stopped to reload, Moriarity and the others pushed Bishop out of the room and quickly barricaded the door with a table so Bishop couldn't reenter the room and resume shooting.

"Moriarity was probably the one that saved our lives. She was the one that initiated the rush," Ng told the Associated Press. "It took a lot of guts to just go up to her."

"There was a time when I didn't think I'd come out of the room alive," he said. "I don't think any of us thought we'd come out alive."

Woops: Moriarity, I was close... Woops, and not African American, I must have mistaken her picture with one of the victims.

Anyway, tragic and awful for everyone involved!

[DrPhil]

If that's true then this is another instance where "sitting at the back of the bus" is sometimes a damn good idea.