Three people were killed and one wounded in a shooting this afternoon at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. A woman is in police custody.

The shooting happened at the Shelby Center engineering building, WAFF reports.

A university spokesman, Ray Garner, confirmed the death toll.

Update at 6:04 p.m. ET: WAFF reports that the suspect is a university employee. The shooting happened about 4 p.m. ET. The campus is on lockdown.

Update at 6:09 p.m. ET: USA TODAY's Donna Leinwand reports that the 200,000-square-foot Shelby Center for Science and Technology is named for Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and opened in October 2007. It has 18 teaching labs, 15 research labs, 13 classrooms, 146 officers and two auditoriums and sits at the entrance to the University of Alabama Huntville at the edge of a lake. It was built with $50 million in federal money and $10 million from the state.

The complex houses the math and biology departments and two research centers, The Center for Modeling, Simulation and Analysis, and the Center for Management and Economic Research.

Update at 6:16 p.m. ET: A student told the Huntsville Times that a biology faculty meeting was underway when she heard screams coming from the room. The PBS News Hour reports that a university trusee says a faculty member had been denied tenure.

Update at 6:22 p.m. ET: AP says Mayor Tommy Battle's chief of staff is reporting that there are several other shooting injuries but he does not know how many.

Update at 6:29 p.m. ET: WAFF, citing authorities, confirms that a female faculty member pulled out a gun and began shooting after learning she was denied tenure. She has not yet been identified.

Update at 6:46 p.m. ET: The Huntsvile Times is reporting that a Harvard University trained neuroscientist was taken into custody, and that her husband has been detained. They have not been charged with a crime, according to a university official.

The supect is listed as an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences who has taught courses in anatomy and physiology.

Update at 7 p.m. ET: We've removed the suspect's name pending police confirmation.

Update at 7:08 p.m. ET: Police say three people were wounded and are hospitalized. No word about their conditions.

Update at 7:50 p.m. ET: The university web site and spokesman Garner report that no students were involved. All three of those killed and two of the injured were faculty members. The third injured person was a staff member. Huntsville Hospital spokesman Burr Ingram said two of the injured were in critical condition and the third was in stable condition, according to AP.

(Posted by Michael Winter)