Alabama Shooting & Debra Moriarity (UPDATE)

In the shooting last week at the University of Alabama, that left three dead and three others wounded, a friend of the troubled woman who became a killer is now being hailed as a hero.

Amy Bishop killed 3 of her fellow staff members at the school and wounded another three, allegedly set off by being denied tenure at the school, but her rampage could have gone on further if she wasn't stopped at least partly by the efforts of her co-worker and friend Debra Moriarity. Moriarity grabbed Bishop's leg and got into a physical exchange that led to Bishop leaving the room, and then when her gun jammed Bishop was unable to prevent Moriarity from going back into the room and helping the other survivors block her out.

Moriarity said there was no way to see this coming, and it seems Amy Bishop's history of mental illness and probable need for medication to be prescribed, and therapy provided from a clinical therapist or psychiatrist, went unnoticed apparently for many years.

Alabama Shooting & Debra Moriarity
cnn

There was nothing about last Friday's biology department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville that portended the carnage that was to come, Professor Debra Moriarity told a reporter Wednesday. "It was actually a really laid-back, mundane kind of faculty meeting," the biochemist told CNN affiliate WAAY about the 13 people seated around an oval table in Room 369 of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology. "Events coming up, scheduling classes, budgets. It was really actually one of the easiest faculty meetings we've had."

Alabama Shooting & Debra Moriarity