Just before noon Tuesday, a woman was shot by her husband on the campus of Faulkner University, a Christian university located in Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery police confirmed earlier this afternoon that the victim, who is a contract maintenance employee for the school but has otherwise yet to be identified, is in serious but stable condition. The husband, also unidentified, is now under arrest and faces attempted murder charges. The incident is believed to be domestic violence-related.
University classes returned to normal schedules about an hour after the life-threatening shooting, which took place near a maintenance building, away from students. A nearby grade school, Alabama Christian Academy, was placed on a short lock down.
Twitter is the only source of news I have about this shooting. Thanks for the alerts Faulkner
— Makenzie Anthony (@maknz36) August 27, 2013
While the University and local emergency services are being praised for their quick action, an internal probe is being conducted to discover why many students and faculty did not receive the school-issued alert. Alerts were issued via text message, email, word of mouth and on the University website. University President Jean-Noel Thompson explained that the school had recently migrated to a new, and more robust, alert system called Eagle Alert.
Student Saul Calderon-Zavala witnessed the shooting, “Heard a shot… there was a woman on the floor, more gunshots. She tried running away and she was just shot more. And he got into his car and drove off.” The suspect was apprehended at the entrance to Faulkner University. Calderon-Zavala praised the Eagle Alert system.
This is the first such incident since the school opened as Montgomery Bible School in 1942. School officials prayed with the victim’s coworkers after the incident and are offering supportive counseling and continued prayers at tomorrow morning’s chapel services.
[Image via Faulkner University]