Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585682,00.html

3 Dead in Shooting at University of Alabama Campus

 DEVELOPING: HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Officials at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus say three people have been killed and another injured in a campus shooting.

University spokesman Ray Garner says a woman is in custody but he could not identify her or any of the victims.

(snipped)

Edit to add name to subject line.  MB

From local news on the 3 local stations I can see

3 dead, 2 in critical condition, 1 in stable condition.  SWAT looking for other victims.  Screans heard from a Sciende Department faculty meeting before shots rang out.

One female University employee taken into custody as alleged shooter.

Campus is said to be secure and others were allowed to leave the building for questioning by law enforcement.

Husband of the female emoloyee also taken into custody, supposedly for questioning.

Rumor has it a dispute over tenure among faculty members.

Presser from UAH spokesperson at 6  p.m.

Anyone else watching coverage, please add what you know or are hearing.

Happened in the Shelby Center.  Senator RIchard Shelby has sent his condolances to the family and the University.

FBI, ABI, Federal Marshalls, County Sheriff and Deputies, Huntsville Police and SWAT teams and campus police all present and working on the investigation.  Sea of squad cars.

Thanks Anna.   ::MonkeyCool::

Trimm,
What are you hearing on this?

BREAKING NEWS: Video: Three Dead In Shooting At UAH, Huntsville, Ala
Video posted earlier
http://www2.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/breaking_news_three_dead_in_shooting_at_uah_huntsville_ala/130438/

 CH 31 has cornered Ray Garner, UAH Spokesperson, there are complaints that the students were not warned but it only happened a little after 4.  Students who were still present have been taken to Madison Hall to talk with police about what they saw and heard.

He says he doesn't know who was taken into custody!  They are discussing the student alert system and why it was not used.  Earlier someone said students had to sign up to receive alerts.  They had 5 choices and put them in the order of how they wanted to receive alerts.

A campus email was sent fo rthem to sign up for this earlier this year.

Alert did go out but not until 5 o'clock.  Students are upset saying that would have been too late, etc.

4:00 shooting
4:10 campus lockdown

R. Garner defending the campus activities and student notification.

seems pretty fast to me.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585682,00.html
3 Dead in Shooting at University of Alabama Campus

Friday, February 12, 2010
 DEVELOPING: HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Three people were killed and several more injured in a shooting Friday in a science building at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, university officials said.

A woman was in custody, but university spokesman Ray Garner said he could not identify her or the victims. Local television stations reported she is a faculty member.

Trent Willis, chief of staff for Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, said several other people had been shot in addition to the four Garner 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.

This is a developing story. Please click refresh for updates.

256 824 7777 to call for family members information.

I just heard that the shooter was a female faculty member in the Science dept.
who was denied tenure.

They do get a bit testy if they don't get tenure.

All victims were also faculty.

That was on Birmingham Television.

(http://media.al.com/huntsville-times/photo/-93b36a383a9e66de_medium.jpg)
Bob Gathany / The Huntsville TimesShooting suspect Amy Bishop is taken into custody. She has not been charged with a crime.
University of Alabama in Huntsville biology professor in custody regarding deadly shooting at faculty meeting
By Patricia C. McCarter
February 12, 2010, 5:45PM
HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A biology professor is in custody in connection with three fatal shootings on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus Friday afternoon, according to a UAH official.

Dr. Amy Bishop, a Harvard-University trained neuroscientist, was taken into custody, and her husband has been detained. They have not been charged with a crime.

According to police, three people were killed and three were wounded when the shooter opened fire during a biology faculty meeting on the third floor of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology. The three injured people are being treated at Huntsville Hospital.

In June 2006, The Times published a story involving Bishop, biology professor and her husband, Jim Anderson, chief science officer of Cherokee Labsystems in Huntsville.

Bishop is quoted in the story as co-inventor of "InQ," a new cell growth incubator which promised to cut the costs, size and maintenance involved in the mechanics of cell generation.

From the story: InQ co-inventor Amy Bishop credits the coming together of a group of people with certain skills and crossover knowledge in a series of highly fortunate events fueled by Huntsville's evolving entrepreneurial spirit.
It's great to actually see it hit the market, and the sooner the better," Bishop said. "My colleagues think it will change the face of tissue culture. It will allow us, as researchers, to not live in the lab and control our tissue culture conditions, including the sensitive cultures including those like adult stem cells.

"The conditions to differentiate those have to be exact, and the incubator will help that."

Tired of applying 1920s science to the rapidly advancing work of biotechnology, Bishop approached her husband ... about inventing a portable cell incubator. Together, she and Anderson designed a sealed, self-contained cell incubation system that is mobile and eliminates many of the problems with cultivating tissues in the fragile environment of the petri dish.

It also has its own on-board computer that maintains and regulates the incubator, allowing tighter control of the cell environment.
Read the latest on the UAH shooting.  http://topics.al.com/tag/UAH%20shooting/index.html

CH 31 saying a U Alert did not go out to all the students until 5:00.  No reason given for the delay. 

Amy Bishop is the name of the Professor taken into custody,  Molecular Biology is her subject.  Assistant Professor in Dept of Biology.

I'm not familiar with this campus, but I'm wondering if it's really large/spread out, even with a lock down maybe some students wouldn't know or realize this.  That would include some that are headed to campus, which could be a bad thing walking into this area, those that are on campus in an area where a lock down wouldn't be known, and perhaps some would like to be notified because they have friends or loved ones on campus and would have liked that alert.  My son was involved in working on helping set up student notification by email and cell phones, and that's why I'm commenting.  There were concerns about who would set in motion the student notification and when.  Sometimes only a building or an area is locked down, which happened at my son's school.  A person fired a pistol in the air one evening during an outdoor dance/party venue but then left campus.  No student notification. 

Dr. Amy Bishop
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences

Research Areas

Ph.D. in Genetics awarded by Harvard University , Department of Genetics, Division of Medical Sciences,.
Research Description

The free radical gas, nitric oxide (NO), is synthesized by many mammalian cells and is utilized for a variety of functions such as cellular signaling, neurotransmission, differentiation and as a bactericidal agent. At high levels, such as during induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), NO is toxic and plays a role in the pathology of injury and many diseases. It is also car cinogenic and mutagenic. Release of NO and other oxidants is implicated in the massive cell death (apoptosis) of motor neurons and their support cells, oligodendrocytes, after spinal injury. In many neurodegenerative diseases, including AIDS dementia, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's, NO-mediated damage is seen.

NO nitrosylates heme-centers of proteins resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction and generation of additional free radicals. In addition, NO can disrupt heme-containing proteins and cause them to release heme into the intracellular environment. This would result in iron-mediated generation of oxidants, especially peroxynitrite, which nitrates tyrosine residues and disrupts protein structure and function. Massive neurofilament derangement and nitrotyrosine positive aggregates are found in the motor neurons of ALS patients and are hallmarks of the disease. NO can act on redox sites on receptors as well as modify proteins (phosphorylation and thiol sites etc.); this is a possible mechanism by which it may launch a redox-regulated signal transduction cascade.

Induction of the heme-metabolizing enzyme, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), has been linked to cellular resistance to heavy metals and other oxidants. HO-1 metabolizes heme generating the end products: CO, billirubin (both have been shown to have an anti-oxidant effects) and iron. HO-1 can exert a direct anti-oxidant effect by breaking down redox-active iron-containing heme groups. It can exert an indirect effect by releasing iron from the heme groups, which causes the upregulation of ferritin synthesis resulting in increased iron sequestration and elimination. Also, HO1 leads to increased iron elimination from the cell through other mechanisms. All this has the possible net effect of lowering the concentration of intracellular iron thereby protecting the cell from iron-mediated damage by peroxynitrite. In addition, iron released from heme groups may act on redox sensitive sites of proteins (IRP and others) either indirectly (by changing the redox milieu of the cell) or directly (iron is redox active) and thereby elicit a signal transduction cascade which ultimately turns on or off genes. There is much yet to be discovered about NO, HO1, iron metabolism and the redox regulation of gene expression.

Neurons are exposed to a lifetime of low levels of NO, during normal cell metabolism, and to high levels during pathological events. Certain neurodegenerative diseases or injury the cells' normal resistance mechanisms are overwhelmed or are defective. In the course of studying NO and cell death I found that under appropriate conditions the cells show a remarkable adaptation to high levels of NO. Specifically, I found that when cells were pretreated with low levels of NO they become resistant to toxic levels of NO (induced adaptive resistance).

Summary of Research Findings:

1. Immortalized motor neurons (NSC34 cells) and primary cells exhibit induced adaptive resistance to NO.
2. This phenomenon extends to other oxidants.
3. The amount of DNA damage is less in adapted NSC34 and in adapted primary neurons, which has implications for prevention of carcinogenesis.
4. The amount of intracellular nitrotyrosine, a quantifiable marker for NO-mediated damage, is significantly less in adapted NSC34 and in adapted primary neurons
5. These effects on nitrotyrosine formation and cell death are dependent on the expression and activity of HO1.
6. The HO1 expression and the induced adaptive resistance are cGMP independent
7. Neurons isolated from HO1 null mice show no adaptive resistance and have increased nitrotyrosine formation and DNA damage in response to NO.
8. Glial cells isolated from HO1 null cells have decreased NO resistance but this denouement is less striking than that in neurons (preliminary).
9. HO1 null cells have increased intracellular iron and decreased elimination of iron.
10. Other gene products (anti-oxidants and DNA repair enzymes) studied thus far do not appear to be involved (preliminary).
11. In NSC34 cells NO resistance correlates with higher % neurite outgrowth suggesting a possible link between adaptive resistance and cell differentiation.

Research Plan:

The overall goal of my laboratory will be to explore resistance to nitro-oxidative stress in CNS cells. The specific aims are to:

1. Determine if the adaptive resistance extends to other oxidants and other CNS cell types.
2. Determine which cellular targets of NO-mediated damage are protected by HO1 induction and induced adaptive resistance.
3. Characterize NO-mediated signal transduction pathways that induce HO1.
4. Characterize the NO-mediated increase of HO1 mRNA stability and/or transcriptional induction of HO1.
5. Determine what other genes are turned/off by HO1 induction and whether their induction/inhibition is necessary for the induced adaptive resistance.
6. Characterize the role of HO-1, HO-1-mediated heme metabolism and iron in induced adaptive resistance.
7. Characterize of the role of cytostasis and differentiation in NO resistance.
8. Eventually use whole animals for studies of induced adaptive resistance in the CNS.
9. Whole animal studies of induced recovery from spinal transection.
10. Study the influence of the low gravity/high radiation environment of space flight on resistance mechanisms to oxidative stress in the CNS.

Understanding mechanisms of induced adaptive resistance in the CNS has therapeutic potential to prevent carcinogenesis as well as preserve cells during early stages of disease (ALS etc.) and during injury (stroke, spinal cord transection). Elucidation of these mechanisms will also give us insights into stimulating regenerative processes in the CNS.

Oxidative Stress Publications


Renae Gooch, James Anderson, Bruce Demple, Amy Bishop, (2005) Mitigation of nitrotyrosine formation in motor neurons adapted to nitrooxidative stress. Manuscript in preparation.

Amy Bishop & James Anderson. NO signaling in the CNS: from the physiological to the pathological. (2005). TOXICOLOGY (Special Issue) Nitric Oxide, Cell Signaling and Death Edited by João Laranjinha.

Amy Bishop, Shaw Fung-Yet, Mark J. Perrella, Arthur M. Lee, Neil R. Cashman and Bruce Demple (2004) Decreasedresistance to nitric oxide in motor neurons of HO-1 null mice. BBRC 325:3-9

Amy Bishop, Neil R. Cashman. (2003) Induced adaptive resistance to oxidative stress in the CNS: Discussion of possible mechanisms and their therapeutic potential. Current Drug Metabolism 4(2) 171-184.

Amy Bishop, John C. Marquis, Neil R. Cashman, and Bruce Demple (1999) Adaptive resistance to nitric oxide in motor neurons. Free Radical Biology & Medicine 26(7/8) 978-986.

Amy Bishop, John H. Wolf, Antonio Cittadini, Kerry Travers, James P. Morgan (1998) Increased responsiveness to epinephrine and decreased cAMP levels in skeletal muscle of rats with chronic heart failure. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 853: 209-219.

Amy Bishop, Mercedes A Paz, Manfred L. Karnovsky, Paul M. Gallop (1998) Methoxatin (PQQ) in mammalian systems. Nutrition Reviews 56(10) 287-293.

Grossman J.D., Bishop A, Travers K.E., Perrault C., Woolf T., Hampton T., Kasgado-Flores, Gonzalez-Serratos H., James P. Morgan (1996) Deficient cellular cyclic AMP may cause both cardiac and skeletal muscle dysfunction in heart failure Journal of Cardiac Failure 2(4) 5105-51011.

Amy Bishop, Mercedes A. Paz, Paul M. Gallop, Manfred L. Karnovsky (1995) Inhibition of redox cycling of methoxatin (PQQ), and of superoxide release by phagocytic white cells Free Radical Biology and Medicine 18: 617-620.

Amy Bishop, Mercedes A. Paz, Paul M. Gallop, Manfred L. Karnovsky (1994) Methoxatin (PQQ) in guinea-pig neutrophils. Free Radical Biology and Medicine 17 (4) 311-320.

Manfred L. Karnovsky, Amy Bishop, Valeria C.P.C. Camerero, Mercedes A. Paz, Pio Colepicolo, Jose M.C. Ribiero and Paul M. Gallop (1994) Aspects of the release of superoxide by leukocytes and the means by which this is switched off. Environmental Health Perspectives 102 (10) 43-44.

Rudolph Fluckiger, Mercedes Paz, James Mah, Amy Bishop and Paul Gallop (1993) Characterization of the glycine-dependent redox-cycling activity in animal fluids and tissues using specific inhibitors and activators: evidence for presence of PQQ. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 196 61-68.

P. M. Gallop, M. A. Paz, R. Fluckiger, A. Bishop and E. Henson (1992) Is the Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory, Putative New Vitamin, PQQ, Involved with Nitric Oxide in Bone Metabolism? Chemistry and biology of mineralized tissues: pp 29-38.

Courses Taught at UAH: 313BYS: Anatomy & Physiology 1, BYS 314: Anatomy & Physiology 2, Special Topics 691:Mechansims of resistance to oxidative stress in the CNS, Special Topics 692: Research

Courses Taught at UAH
BYS 313: Anatomy & Physiology 1
BYS 314: Anatomy & Physiology 2
BYS 400/600: Introduction to Neuroscience
Special Topics 691: Mechanisms of resistance to oxidative stress in the CNS
Special Topics 692: Research

Lab Personnel
Kimberly Green, Bridge to Doctorate Student
Renea Gooch, Masters Student

Collaborators
James Anderson, Research Consultant, Cherokee Labsystems
Robert Richmond, Ph.D., Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA
National Space Science & Technology Center, Huntsville, AL

Husband also detained but I don't know his name yet.

Governor Riley, in addition to Senator Richard Shelby, has issured a statemnt of condolance to the families and the University.

Also, Rep. Parker Griffith has expressed his condolances as well.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/university_of_alabama_in_hunts_2.html
University of Alabama in Huntsville closed after shooting, hotline set up for students and parents
By Niki Doyle
February 12, 2010, 6:16PM
HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The University of Alabama in Huntsville has been shut down and the residence halls put on lockdown following a shooting that killed three and injured three.

Counselors are now available at the University Center, and the school has set up a hotline at 824-7777 for parents and students to call in with questions and concerns.

Biology professor Amy Bishop and her husband have been detained following the shooting. They have not been charged with a crime.

The shootings occurred during a meeting of the biology faculty in Room 369.

Justin Wright, a UAH senior majoring in psychology/philosphy, was working in the math lab on the second floor when police came runing in with guns drawn.

"My first instinct was, 'I need to get down. I need to get down,' " Wright said. "I've never seen a gun or heavy artillery like that. I was shocked.

Photos at link

This is all I will post for now.

Please anyone who has any more information, post and keep us updated.  Must leave for now but will check back later and add anything I learn or hear in the meantime.

https://chargerpost.uah.edu/pages/campusnews.php?id=172insight/insightread.php?newsID=1257
EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION

There has been a shooting on campus.  The shooter has been apprehended.  The campus is closed tonight.  Everyone is encouraged to go home.  Classes are cancelled for tonight.  Any additional cancellations or changes will be announced as they become available.  There is a Command Center set up at Madison Hall Room 109.  Counselors are available in University Center Rooms 125, 126 and 127 for anyone who wishes to speak with a counselor.

It has been confirmed no students are involved.

Video: UAH shooting leaves three dead, three wounded at Shelby Center
By Jon Busdeker
February 12, 2010, 7:01PM
UAH Shooting leaves three dead and three wounded

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/video_uah_shooting_leaves_thre.html

Found this from earlier this evening.
Raw Video: Three Killed in University Shooting  02/12/10
http://www.youtube.com/v/iXm5n9en5Dw&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/us/13alabama.html
6 Shot, 3 Killed in Alabama Campus Shooting
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/02/13/us/13alabama_CA0/13alabama_CA0-articleLarge.jpg)
Victims were taken to ambulances on Friday at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
By SARAH WHEATON
Published: February 12, 2010

Three faculty members at the University of Alabama at Huntsville were shot to death and three other people were critically wounded during a biology faculty meeting on Friday afternoon, university officials said.

The Huntsville Times, quoting university officials, reported that a biology professor was being held in the shooting. WAAY-TV in Huntsville reported that the professor had been denied tenure.

The newspaper identified the professor as Dr. Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist. According to a 2006 profile in the newspaper, Dr. Bishop invented a portable cell growth incubator with her husband, Jim Anderson. Police officials said that Mr. Anderson was being detained but they did not call him a suspect.

The shooting occurred in the university’s Shelby Center around 4 p.m. Central Time, officials said. Few students were in the building, and none were involved in the shooting, said Ray Garner, a university spokesman. Three faculty members were killed, and three other people – two faculty members and one staff person – were taken to Huntsville Hospital, with injuries ranging from serious to critical.
Officials said the suspected shooter was detained outside of the building “without incident.”

Justin Wright, a senior, was working in the building’s math lab on the second floor when police burst in with guns drawn. Mr. Wright told the Huntsville Times that his first thoughts were, “I need to get down, I need to get down.” He added, “I’ve never seen a gun or heavy artillery like that. I was shocked.”

The shooting came just a week after a middle school student shot in Huntsville shot and killed a classmate, leaving the town in shock.

“This is a very safe campus,” said Mr. Garner. “It’s not unlike what we experienced a week ago. This town is not accustomed to shootings and having multiple dead.”

The gray lawns of the campus were lit up by the flashing lights of police cars and ambulances with blue and yellow stripes as police and Swat teams descended on campus. The university police were the first to respond, but the Huntsville Police Department is now handling the investigation, officials said. The Madison County Sheriff’s Department is also assisting in the investigation.

The university was put on lockdown “almost instantaneously,” said Trent Willis, chief of staff to Mayor Tommy Battle. However, some students complained on Twitter and to reporters that they did not receive the university’s alert until hours after the shooting.
The U-Alert was triggered late because the people involved in activating that system were involved in responding to the shooting,” said Charles Gailes, chief of the university police, at a news conference.

“We’re going to stop, we’re going to sit down, we’re going to review what happened,” Mr. Gailes said. “All of these actions are going to be learning points, and we’re going to be better for this.”

Erin Johnson, a sophomore, told the Huntsville Times a biology faculty meeting was underway when she heard screams coming from the room.

According to the 2006 profile, Dr. Bishop and her husband tired of using old-fashioned petri dishes for cell incubation, and designed a sealed, self-contained mobile cell incubation system. The system was described as reducing many of the problems with cultivating tissues in the fragile environment of the petri dish.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/uah_professor_in_custody_for_questioning.html
UAH professor in custody for questioning in shooting deaths of three faculty members
By Patricia C. McCarter
February 13, 2010, 7:00AM
HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Three faculty members are dead and one is in custody following a Friday afternoon shooting rampage at the University of Alabama in Huntsville; two faculty members and a staff member were also wounded.

Dr. Amy Bishop was taken into custody outside the Shelby Center of Science and Technology without incident about 10 minutes after the 3:57 p.m. shooting during a biology faculty meeting, sources said.

Bishop joined the UAH faculty in 2003. She graduated with a doctorate in genetics from Harvard University in 1993.

Bishop has not been charged with a crime. As of late Friday, Huntsville police had not identified the suspect or the other person of interest detained, however, a UAH source said it was Bishop's husband.

Killed were Dr. Gopi Podila, biology department chair and professor of plant molecular biology and biotechnology; Dr. Maria Ragland Davis, professor of biotechnology and plant genomics; and Dr. Adriel Johnson, professor of physiology.
Dr. Joseph Leahy, professor of microbiology, and Stephanie Monticciolo, department assistant, were in critical condition Friday night; Dr. Luis Rogelio Cruz-Vera, professor of molecular biology, was stable.

The university will be closed - including classes and sporting events - Monday through Friday, Feb. 19. Faculty and staff will be allowed to work if they choose. Parents or students who have questions can call a UAH hotline at 256-824-7777.

UAH officials stressed that none of its 7,500 students witnessed the shooting, which happened in a conference room on the third floor of the Shelby Center.

By 4:20 p.m., police began to clear the parking lots around the building.

"At one point we were told to get into our cars, roll up the windows and lock the doors," said Tony Cannizzo, a 19-year-old student parked by the building.

Emergency technicians wheeled out gurneys at 4:30 p.m. as more police poured into the Shelby Center. Shortly afterwards, police brought out a large group of survivors, who were interviewed in a nearby hall.

UAH sophomore Erin Johnson from Flat Rock, a student aide in the biology office, helped set up chairs in the conference room for the faculty meeting. She was in the third-floor biology department office when "I heard banging."

"I guess that was the gun shots," said Johnson, who has worked in the department for only a week. "I heard screaming."
Then she saw a woman she didn't recognize run out of the conference room, and she heard someone say, "Call 911."

"I waited, and then the cops came in with the guns," said Johnson, visibly shaken.
UAH student Kim Helms was in Bishop's neuroscience class Friday afternoon, and she said her teacher seemed "the same as always," but she did come in a little late.

Helms said she'd heard Bishop hadn't gotten tenure, and a classmate was starting a petition to ask the department to reconsider.

At 4:52 p.m., university officials e-mailed this message to UAH students and employees: "There has been a shooting on campus. The shooter has been apprehended. The campus is closed tonight. Everyone is encouraged to go home. Classes are canceled for tonight. Any additional cancellations or changes will be announced as they become available.

"There is a command center set up at Madison Hall Room 109. Counselors are available in University Center Rooms 125, 126 and 127 for anyone who wishes to speak with a counselor."

UAH spokesman Ray Garner said the university started looking at installing an alert messaging system after a student killed 32 students at Virginia Tech in 2007.
But UAH students did not immediately receive warnings via e-mail or text.

Tony Cannizzo, 19, received a text message about 6:20 p.m., although it arrived with the time marked 5:32 p.m. The message read: "Shelby Center is secure and the suspect is in custody." Cannizzo said he did not receive any other messages before that one.

"UAlert was triggered late because the people who were responsible for activating the system were responding to the incident," said Campus Police Chief Charles Gailes during a press conference.

Reporters on the scene were Pat Newcomb, Challen Stephens, Victoria Cumbow and Kim Albright.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/detail/53497.html
 2/13/10 |   1 comment
Faculty slayings shock UAH students
‘My parents want me home’
By Tiffeny Hurtado
Staff Writer
University of Alabama in Huntsville students were shocked that a shooting Friday afternoon that killed three faculty members and wounded three others could happen at their campus.

Freshman Kirby Wallace of Danville, a biology and chemistry major, walked out of class Friday afternoon after finishing a test and watched ambulances and police cars descend on the Shelby Center.

She had attended class inside the building just hours before the shooting, as had her roommate.

“I left the campus because I really didn’t want to be there with all that going on,” Wallace said.

She received a barrage of phone calls and text messages during her test. Her parents, her boyfriend, classmates and friends who attend other colleges were concerned she may have been hurt, she said.

“My parents want me to come home tonight.”

She said going to class at the Shelby Center after the shooting will be hard because she is worried one or more of her professors may have been involved. She said she knew several of the science professors either from taking their classes or seeing their names while registering for classes.

“I’m sure security will be tighter than it’s ever been before after this, but it’s going to be sad finding out who was shot and hurt,” she said.

Graduate student Katie Hodges of Decatur learned about the shooting through a friend’s text and is apprehensive about attending a business class Saturday.
“I drive by that building every day,” she said. “I
have classes in the building right next to the Shelby Center.”

Eric Ibarra of Madison is majoring in electrical engineering and attended classes in the Shelby Center before this semester. He said he couldn’t believe a deadly shooting occurred at his college.

“I didn’t think anything like this could happen here,” Ibarra said. “This happens in other places but not here.”

Phillip Gentry of Decatur was on campus in Cramer Hall, which is across the street from Shelby Center.

“I saw a lot of concern, a lot of confusion and a lot of uncertainty about whether we were in lockdown,” said Gentry, who is the Earth System Science Center’s communications director.

“I didn’t see any panic,” he said. “There was more concern for the victims and people interested in trying to find out what happened.”

Gentry said he has worked closely with the biology faculty during the past 20 years.

“I know several of them quite well,” he said. “I’m deeply concerned about my friends and colleagues.”

Staff writer Ronnie Thomas contributed to this article.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/amy_bishop_biology_professor_a.html
Amy Bishop charged with murder in UAH shooting
By Victoria Cumbow
February 13, 2010, 8:04AM

Thanks so much Trimm!  Any others with info, please post.

Oh, and there is to be a press conference at 11 this morning from the University President whose name I have just let slip my mind at the moment.  I heard it just this morning and it's gone now.

Anyway it's at 11 and I would think all four local channels will carry it.  If not Ch 31 and CH19 are supposed to do so.

My condolances to the families, friends, the Univeristy and Community on this tragedy.  It was a week after the high school shooting in an area that is far removed from this sort of thing and we are all shocked and deeply saddened that this has come to our doorstep.  It seems no one gets away from the violence in these troubled times.

I missed the first part of the press conference because CH31 didn't carry it.  It's on CH19 however.

There will be biographical information on each of the victims on the  school website.

Suspect was apprehended outside the building with no resistence.  Weapon in restroom of the second floor.

Suspect's children with family now.  Search warrant issued and executed on their residence last night.

I think he said 15 people were in the room but am not positive.  Actions taken by citizens inside and outside the building credited with saving lives.

Up to her counsel if she will undergo mental evaluation.  Can't release much information as the investigation is still ongoing.  Should take 6 wwks or so to bring to court.

Won't comment on her research.  Staff routinely undergoes background checks.  Students still concerned that they were not notified.  Suspect was in custody and contained immediately so the safety of the remainder of the campus was not impacted.

Caller called police possibly by cell phone.  County, city and campus arrived very quickly because H'ville has a center that co-ordinates all law enforcemnt.  Have warrants and are going through evidence including from the residence.

They have reharsed for such emergencies and all officers were trained and responded as instructed and the command center worked well.

Responders arrived, assessed, took action and contained the suspect.  First email 4:42 to students.  Lots of questions about student notification.  However since this was contained almost immediately, the policy was that no alert was appropriate.  have used the system before for weather related warnings and it is in place and working but was not needed in thsi particular situation because of the swiftness of containment of the siuation.

Dr. Williams thanks Madison County and Huntsville.

More information will be postd on their website which I think they said was

http://www.uah.edu/

There are to be updates posted there as they become available.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585682,00.html
Motive in Question as Professor Faces Murder Charge in Alabama Campus Shooting

Saturday, February 13, 2010
(http://www.foxnews.com/images/597805/13_62_021210_matt_shooting.jpg)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —  There "may never be a clear answer" as to why a biology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville allegedly shot and killed three colleagues and wounded thre others, campus police said Saturday in a news conference.

Amy Bishop, 42, was charged Friday night with one count of capital murder, which means she could face the death penalty if convicted, and authorities said Saturday more charges are pending. She reportedly had been involved in a tenure dispute on the campus.

A 9 mm weapon was found in a bathroom in the university building where the shooting took place, campus police officer Charles Gailes said at the news conference.

Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist who became an assistant professor at the school in 2003, was taken Friday night in handcuffs to the county jail. As she got into a police car, she said, "It didn't happen. There's no way. ... They are still alive.
Students' assessments of Bishop varied. Some recalled an attentive, friendly teacher, while others said she was an odd woman who couldn't simplify difficult subjects for students. Sammie Lee Davis, the husband of a tenured researcher who was killed, said his wife had described Bishop as "not being able to deal with reality" and "not as good as she thought she was."

Davis said his wife was a tenured researcher at the university. In a brief phone interview, Davis said he was told his wife was at a meeting to discuss the tenure status of another faculty member who got angry and started shooting.

Davis' wife, Maria Ragland Davis, was among those killed, along with Gopi K. Podila, chairman of the biological sciences department, and another faculty member, Adriel Johnson.

Bishop had created a portable cell incubator, known as InQ, that was less expensive than its larger counterparts. She and her husband had won $25,000 in 2007 to market the device.

Andrea Bennett, a sophomore majoring in nursing and an athlete at UAH, said a coach told her team that Bishop had been denied tenure, which the coach said may have led to the shooting.

Bennett described Bishop as being "very weird" and "a really big nerd."

"She's well-known on campus, but I wouldn't say she's a good teacher. I've heard a lot of complaints," Bennett said. "She's a genius, but she really just can't explain things."

Amanda Tucker, a junior nursing major from Alabaster, Alabama, had Bishop for anatomy class about a year ago. Tucker said a group of students complained to a dean about Bishop's classroom performance.

"When it came down to tests, and people asked her what was the best way to study, she'd just tell you, 'Read the book.' When the test came, there were just ridiculous questions. No one even knew what she was asking," Tucker said.

However, UAH student Andrew Cole was in Bishop's anatomy class Friday morning and said she seemed perfectly normal.
"She's understanding, and was concerned about students," he said. "I would have never thought it was her."

Nick Lawton, 25, described Bishop as funny and accommodating with students.

"She seemed like a nice enough professor," Lawton said.

The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line. The university is known for its scientific and engineering programs and often works closely with NASA.

The space agency has a research center on the school's campus, where many scientists and engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center perform Earth and space science research and development.

The university will remain closed next week, and all athletic events were canceled. The wounded were still recovering in hospitals early Saturday. Luis Cruz-Vera was in fair condition; Joseph Leahy in critical condition; and staffer Stephanie Monticello also was in critical condition.

It's the second shooting in a week on an area campus. On Feb. 5, a 14-year-old student was killed in a middle school hallway in nearby Madison, allegedly by a fellow student.

Mass shootings are rarely carried out by women, said Dr. Park Dietz, who is president of Threat Assessment Group Inc., a Newport Beach, California-based violence prevention firm.

A notable exception was a 1985 rampage at a Springfield, Pennsylvania, mall in which three people were killed. In June 1986, Sylvia Seegrist was deemed guilty but mentally ill on three counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in the shooting spree.

Dietz, who interviewed Seegrist after her arrest, said it was possible the suspect in Friday's shooting had a long-standing grudge against colleagues or superiors and felt complaints had not been dealt with fairly.
Gregg McCrary, a retired FBI agent and private criminal profiler based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said there is no typical outline of a mass shooter but noted they often share a sense of paranoia, depression or a feeling that they are not appreciated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100213/capt.f3ccfac56c2849eabf10cbca2d442352.ala_university_shooting_alhut105.jpg?x=400&y=267&q=85&sig=R1i.txmS85PcPsMKl9YosQ--)
Police surround the Shelby Center at University of Alabama in Huntsville, Ala. after a shooting Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. A woman opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus Friday, killing three faculty members and injuring two other faculty members and a staff member.
(AP Photo/Huntsville Times, Dave Dieter) NO SALES, MAGS out

(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100213/capt.aa3d280b4c0b4a44b67e937e313f6328.ala_university_shooting_alhut106.jpg?x=400&y=258&q=85&sig=fXfJjw9EYHWe2lZNnruLvw--)
Shooting victims are wheeled out of the Shelby Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Ala. Friday Feb 12, 2010. A woman opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus Friday, killing three faculty members and injuring two other faculty members and a staff member.
(AP Photo/Huntsville Times, Bob Gathany) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

(http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100213/capt.9c95d2a4aa2f480e87b136243609cfb0.ala_university_shooting_alhut104.jpg?x=400&y=253&q=85&sig=sCTnwe4orgcDRjb17gVteg--)
Paramedics rush a shooting victim out of the Shelby Center at the University of Alabama campus, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 in Huntsville, Ala.. A woman opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus Friday, killing three faculty members and injuring two other faculty members and a staff member.
(AP Photo/Huntsville Times, Eric Schultz) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Shooting-University-Alabama-Huntsville/ss/events/us/021210shootingala/im:/100213/480/9c95d2a4aa2f480e87b136243609cfb0/#photoViewer=/100213/480/aa3d280b4c0b4a44b67e937e313f6328

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/professor_accus.html
Professor accused in Ala. slayings shot her brother in Mass. 24 years ago
EmailE-mail|Link February 13, 2010 06:01 PM
By John M. Guilfoil and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff     

BRAINTREE -- The University of Alabama biology professor accused of slaying three of her colleagues fatally shot her brother in Massachusetts more than two decades ago, a local police chief said today, while at the same time raising troubling questions about how the long-ago incident was handled.
The Boston Globe reported at the time that Amy Bishop had accidentally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth M. Bishop, an accomplished violinist who had won a number of science awards, in Braintree.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier confirmed today at a news conference that Amy Bishop had shot her brother in 1986. But Frazier offered a different account of the shooting, saying Bishop had shot her brother during an argument and was being booked by police when the chief at the time ordered the booking process stopped and Bishop released to her mother.

Frazier said he was basing his statements on the memories of one of his officers who was on the department at the time and had arrested Bishop. He said the records from the case have been missing since at least 1988.

"I don't want to use the word 'coverup' ... but this does not look good," he said.

Then-Police Chief John Polio told the Globe in 1986 that Bishop had asked her mother, Judith, in the presence of her brother how to unload a round from the chamber of a 12-gauge shotgun.

Polio told the Globe that while Amy Bishop was handling the weapon, it fired, wounding Seth Bishop in the abdomen. He was pronounced dead at a hospital 46 minutes after the Dec. 6, 1986 shooting.
Every indication at this point in time leads us to believe it was an accidental shooting," Polio said at the time.

In an interview at his home this afternoon, Polio, 87, said, "There was no coverup." He said he followed all department procedures and then-District Attorney William Delahunt's office conducted an inquiry and the decision was made not to file charges.
Polio at times fumbled over names and did not remember some details of the case. He was not aware until told by reporters that Bishop was accused of the shootings in Alabama.

Delahunt, who is now a US representative, could not immediately be reached for comment this afternoon.

But Frazier said the media had been fed an incorrect story. He said that there was an argument at the home on Hollis Avenue and Amy Bishop had fired three shots, including the fatal one, then fled the house and pointed the shotgun at a motorist in an attempted carjack. She was then arrested at gunpoint by officers.

In Friday's shooting, Bishop, 42, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, allegedly shot and killed three of her colleagues and wounded three others in an apparent tenure dispute at the Huntsville campus, the Associated Press reports.

Video at link

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6866276.html
Accused Alabama prof shot, killed brother in 1986
By KRISTIN M. HALL and DESIREE HUNTER Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
Feb. 13, 2010, 5:50PM

 HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting was a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, inventor and mother whose life had been marred by a violent episode in her distant past.

More than two decades ago, police said Amy Bishop fatally shot her teenage brother at their Massachusetts home in what officers at the time logged as an accident — though authorities said Saturday that records of the shooting are missing.

Bishop had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville when police said she opened fire with a handgun Friday in a room filled with a dozen of her colleagues from the school's biology department. Bishop, a rare woman suspected in a workplace shooting, was to leave after this semester because she had been denied tenure.

Police say she is 42, but the university's Web site lists her as 44.

Some have said she was upset after being denied the job-for-life security afforded tenured academics, and the husband of one victim and one of Bishop's students said they were told the shooting stemmed from the school's refusal to grant her such status. Authorities have refused to discuss a motive, and school spokesman Ray Garner said the faculty meeting wasn't called to discuss tenure.

William Setzer, chairman of chemistry department at UAH, said Bishop was appealing the decision made last year.

"Politics and personalities" always play a role in the tenure process, he said. "In a close department it's more so. If you have any lone wolves or bizarre personalities, it's a problem and I'm thinking that certainly came into play here."

The three killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and two other faculty members, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson. The wounded were still recovering in hospitals early Saturday. Luis Cruz-Vera was in fair condition; Joseph Leahy in critical condition; and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo also was in critical condition.

Descriptions of Bishop from students and colleagues were mixed. Some saw a strange woman who had difficulty relating to her students, while others described a witty, intelligent teacher.

Students and colleagues described Bishop as intelligent, but someone who often had difficulty explaining difficult concepts.

Bishop was well-known in the research community, appearing on the cover of the winter 2009 issue of "The Huntsville R&D Report," a local magazine focusing on engineering, space and genetics. However, it was unclear how many of her colleagues and students knew about a more tragic part of her past.

She shot her brother, an 18-year-old accomplished violinist, in the chest in 1986, said Paul Frazier, the police chief in Braintree, Mass., where the shooting occurred. Bishop fired at least three shots, hitting her brother once and hitting her bedroom wall before police took her into custody at gunpoint, he said.

Frazier said the police chief at the time told officers to release Bishop to her mother before she could be booked. It was logged as an accident.

But Frazier's account was disputed by former police Chief John Polio, who told The Associated Press he didn't call officers to tell them to release Bishop. "There's no cover-up, no missing records," he said.

Attempts by AP to track down addresses and phone numbers for Bishop's family in the Braintree area weren't immediately successful Saturday. The current police chief said he believed her family had moved away.

After being educated at Harvard University, Bishop moved to Huntsville and in 2003 became an associate professor at the University of Alabama's campus there. The school, with about 7,500 students, has close ties with NASA and is known for its engineering and science programs.

Setzer, the chemistry chairman, said he was not aware of the incident with Bishop's brother.

Bishop and her husband placed third in a statewide university business plan competition in July 2007, presenting a portable cell incubator they had invented. They won $25,000 to help start a company to market the device.

Her husband, James Anderson, was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged. Police said Bishop was quickly caught after Friday's shooting. A 9-millimeter handgun was found in the bathroom of the building where the shootings occurred, and Huntsville police spokesman Sgt. Mark Roberts said Bishop did not have a permit for it.

Bishop was in custody and it wasn't immediately known if she has an attorney. No one was home at the couple's house.

Several experts said campus shootings commonly occur because the shooter has some kind of festering grievance that university officials haven't addressed, and the granting of tenure can be a polarizing and politicized process for many academics.

"Universities tend to string it out without resolution, tolerate too much and to have a cumbersome decision process that endangers the comfort of many and the safety of some," said Dr. Park Dietz, who is president of Threat Assessment Group Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif.-based violence prevention firm.

Tenure, which makes firing and other discipline difficult if not impossible, can seem generous to outsiders. But the job protection gives professors the freedom to express ideas and conduct studies without fear of reprisal. The system typically emphasizes research over teaching, and tenured professors typically are paid more.

While it's rare for the stresses of the tenure process to incur violence, what's even rarer is for a woman to be accused in such an incident like the one Friday that also left three of Bishop's colleagues injured, two critically.

"Workplace shootings of that kind are overwhelmingly male," said Franklin E. Zimring, a law professor and director of violence prevention at the University of California, Berkeley. "Going postal was essentially a monopoly position of the XY chromosome."

___

errrrrrrr.............. re: the incident 24 years ago.

3 shots fired.

deemed an accident

ummmm.....1 shot would be an accident, perhaps...but 3? I don't think so.  ::MonkeyNoNo::

Boston Globe Archives Search Results
"( (unq:"0EADEDBDBB6CD0D5") ) " returned 1 article(s) matching your terms. To purchase the full-text of an article, follow the link that says "Click for complete article."

Your search results:

BRAINTREE SHOOTING SEEN AS ACCIDENT
Published on December 8, 1986

An 18-year-old Braintree student, described as an accomplished violinist who had won a number of science awards, was killed Saturday in his home when a shotgun his sister was attempting to unload discharged, police said.

Seth M. Bishop of Braintree died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen, according to a Norfolk County medical examiner and Braintree police investigators.

Police say they have determined that the 12-gauge shotgun was fired by Bishop's older sister, Amy, and that...........
Click for complete article (335 words)

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADEDBDBB6CD0D5&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

errrrrrrrrrr................ 12-gauge shotgun fired 3 times is no accident, lol.

Huntsville killer shot her brother 24 years ago
Posted on February 13, 2010 by nuke
from Boston.com

The University of Alabama biology professor accused of slaying three of her colleagues fatally shot her brother in an apparent accident in Massachusetts more than two decades ago, a local police chief said.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier confirmed the 1986 shooting in his town and slated a news conference this afternoon to discuss the incident.

The Globe reported at the time that Amy Bishop had shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth M. Bishop, an accomplished violinist who had won a number of science awards.

John Polio, chief of police at the time, said Amy Bishop, who was 20 at the time, had asked her mother, Judith, in the presence of her brother how to unload a round from the chamber of a 12-gauge shotgun.

Polio told the Globe that while Amy Bishop was handling the weapon, it fired, wounding Seth Bishop in the abdomen. He was pronounced dead at a hospital 46 minutes after the Dec. 6, 1986 shooting.

“Every indication at this point in time leads us to believe it was an accidental shooting,” Polio said at the time.

http://nukegingrich.com/

Exactly.   ::MonkeyCool::

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/13/AR2010021300429.html
Accused Alabama prof shot, killed brother in 1986
By KRISTIN M. HALL and DESIREE HUNTER
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 13, 2010; 9:39 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting was a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, inventor and mother whose life had been marred by a violent episode in her distant past.
More than two decades ago, police said Amy Bishop killed her teenage brother with a shotgun at their Massachusetts home in a shooting that investigators concluded was an accident.

Bishop had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville when police said she opened fire with a handgun Friday in a room filled with a dozen of her colleagues from the school's biology department.
Bishop, a rare woman suspected in a workplace shooting, was to leave after this semester because she had been denied tenure. Police say she is 42, but the university's Web site lists her as 44.

Some have said she was upset after being denied the job-for-life security afforded tenured academics, and the husband of one victim and one of Bishop's students said they were told the shooting stemmed from the school's refusal to grant her such status. Authorities have refused to discuss a motive, and school spokesman Ray Garner said the faculty meeting wasn't called to discuss tenure.

William Setzer, chairman of chemistry department at UAH, said Bishop was appealing the decision made last year.

"Politics and personalities" always play a role in the tenure process, he said. "In a close department it's more so. If you have any lone wolves or bizarre personalities, it's a problem and I'm thinking that certainly came into play here."

The three killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and two other faculty members, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson. The wounded were still recovering in hospitals early Saturday. Luis Cruz-Vera was in fair condition; Joseph Leahy in critical condition; and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo also was in critical condition.
Descriptions of Bishop from students and colleagues were mixed. Some saw a strange woman who had difficulty relating to her students, while others described a witty, intelligent teacher.

Students and colleagues described Bishop as intelligent, but someone who often had difficulty explaining difficult concepts.

Bishop was well-known in the research community, appearing on the cover of the winter 2009 issue of "The Huntsville R&D Report," a local magazine focusing on engineering, space and genetics.

However, it was unclear how many of her colleagues and students knew about a more tragic part of her past. Setzer, the chemistry chairman, and the university's police chief said they weren't aware of her brother's death until they were asked by reporters Saturday.
Continued here.....   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/13/AR2010021300429_2.html

I was thinking the same thing, but then I asked some folks that handle firearms a lot and they said if it was a pump action, NO WAY was it an accident in their opinion.  And then they said IF it was a semi-automatic it's "just possible".   :smt102  Still sounds hinkey to me.   ::rhino::

So, are the records missing or are they not?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/professor_accus.html
<snip>
Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier confirmed today at a news conference that Amy Bishop had shot her brother in 1986. But Frazier offered a different account of the shooting, saying Bishop had shot her brother during an argument and was being booked by police when the chief at the time ordered the booking process stopped and Bishop released to her mother.

Frazier said he was basing his statements on the memories of one of his officers who was on the department at the time and had arrested Bishop. He said the records from the case have been missing since at least 1988.

"I don't want to use the word 'coverup' ... but this does not look good," he said.
<snip>

Or is it:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6866276.html
<snip>
But Frazier's account was disputed by former police Chief John Polio, who told The Associated Press he didn't call officers to tell them to release Bishop. "There's no cover-up, no missing records," he said.
<snip>

And this has me really wondering if this is how a person would act if they shot someone accidentally:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/professor_accus.html
<snip>
But Frazier said the media had been fed an incorrect story. He said that there was an argument at the home on Hollis Avenue and Amy Bishop had fired three shots, including the fatal one, then fled the house and pointed the shotgun at a motorist in an attempted carjack. She was then arrested at gunpoint by officers.
<snip>

And it was decided this was an accident?  Amy Bishop shot her brother Seth 3 times with a 12 gauge and then ran out of the house, and tried to carjack someone?  Someone's got some splainin' to do, imo. 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/statement_from_32.html
(Video  with Ex-Chief in Article)
Two different views of a single tragedy
February 13, 2010 10:35 PM
(http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/MetroPhotos02/10/Amy_Bishop_021310_001.jpg)
Amy Bishop

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

On some things they agree: There was an argument. More than one shot was fired. Amy Bishop, who had fatally shot her brother, Seth, was found by officers outside the family home. She was sent home, rather than held in jail.
But a statement released by Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier and a State Police investigative report from more than 20 years ago released by the Norfolk district attorney's office differ widely in other respects -- and in the conclusions they draw.

Frazier, based upon the recollections of an officer involved in the case, said the girl had fought with her brother in the 1986 incident, then shot him with a shotgun and fled down the street with the rifle in her hand, at one point pointing it at a car to try to get it to stop. Later, at the station, Frazier said, the booking process was abruptly stopped and the young woman released.

Frazier said the release of Bishop had "frustrated" officers at the time and called the handling of the case "troubling."

"The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age," Frazier said.
The State Police report, completed in March 1987 by Trooper Brian L. Howe, several months after the Dec. 6, 1986 incident, paints a different picture.

The argument was not between the brother and sister, it was between the sister and her father, the report said. The young woman told them that after the argument, she had decided to practice how to load a shotgun the family had bought for self-defense after a previous break-in.

She said she loaded it but had trouble unloading it and it accidentally went off in her bedroom. Still hoping to unload it, she said, she went downstairs to ask her brother to help her, accidentally shooting him. Her mother said she had witnessed the incident and generally corroborated her account.

The report said the girl was initially unable to provide information due to "her highly emotional state" so the investigators decided to let her and her parents go, with the plan of interviewing them later after they had "sufficient time to stabilize their emotions." When investigators did interview Bishop, "she reiterated adamantly that the discharge had been accidental," the report said.

Ultimately, the report concluded, based on the testimony of the family members, that the shooting was an accident and no further investigation was needed. The case was gradually forgotten until today, a day after Amy Bishop's alleged shooting rampage at the University of Alabama.

I remember someone asking one of the officials if the faculty members were given psychological testing and he said that an extensive background check was all that was done.

But in this instance, since it was ruled an accident, it wouldn't even show up!  Especially if somebody made the records disappear.  And maybe not that far back anyway.

Very troubling thought that we don't know who is teaching and working with our children in these crazy times.

This is just so totally strange.  I suppose she thought she couldn't get another job or something but to shoot not one but six people over it is beyond understanding.  Very troubled individual and from the student comments in those articles, some of her behavior went beyond eccentric.  I pity the kids that were in this nutcase's classes.

Parents who lose one child will often do everything they can to keep from losing another.  What I mean is in a case where one shoots the other, they will defend the shooter because if they are convicted, they lose both kids.

Sad, but sometimes true.

Chief Frazier's statement on Amy Bishop
Saturday February 13, 2010

(NECN: Braintree, Mass.) - Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier issued a statement Saturday evening regarding Amy Bishop, the woman accused of shooting three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Bishop, according to Chief Frazier, shot her brother in 1986 at the family's Braintree home. She was released from police custody before being booked.

State Police investigative report: '86 Bishop shooting [NECN] (article posted below)

Chief Frazier said he cannot find the police report and that it has been missing from the file for over 20 years. Former Police Chief John Polio denied a cover-up in the case. (article posted below)

Chief Frazier's entire statement reads as follows:

All of the charges contained in this news release are merely accusations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

Comments from Chief Paul Frazier Regarding Amy Bishop

Good afternoon,

"The members of the Braintree Police Department extend their thoughts and prayers to the victims in the shooting incident which occurred at the University of Alabama, in Huntsville, Alabama as well as to their families and the members of the Huntsville Police Department who responded to and are investigating the incident."

"I have been in contact with the Huntsville Police Department to confirm that the suspect in their shooting had been involved in a shooting incident in Braintree 24 years ago. Their investigators will be back in touch with us within a couple of days."

"The suspect in the Huntsville shooting, Amy Bishop had been involved in a shooting incident in Braintree, Massachusetts in December of 1986. I located the Day Log from December of 1986 and found that the incident had occurred on December 6th. After finding the report number I looked in our archived files for the report. I was unable to locate the report."

"Officer Ronald Solimini informed me that he wrote the report and said that I wouldn't find it as it has been missing from the files for over 20 years. He said that former Police Chief Edward Flynn had looked for the report and that it was missing. He believes this was in 1988."

Officer Solimini recalled the incident as follows: He said he remembers that Ms. Bishop fired a round from a pump action shotgun  into the wall of her bedroom. She had a fight with her brother and shot him, which caused his death. She fired a third round from the shotgun into the ceiling as she exited the home. She fled down the street with the shotgun in her hand. At one point she allegedly pointed the shotgun at a motor vehicle in an attempt to get the driver to stop. Officer Solimini found her behind a business on Washington Street. Officer Timothy Murphy was able to take control of the suspect at gunpoint and seized the shotgun. Ms. Bishop was subsequently handcuffed and transported to the police station under arrest."

"Officer Solimini informed me that before the booking process was completed Ms. Bishop was released from custody without being charged."

"I (Chief Frazier) spoke with the retired Deputy Chief who was then a Lieutenant and was responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a phone call he believes was from then Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a captain on Chief Polio's behalf. He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit."

Braintree Police Lieutenant Karen MacAleese was a high school classmate and confirmed from photographs that the suspect is the same Amy Bishop who lived in Braintree.

"I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop. It was a difficult time for the department as there had been three (3) shooting incidents within a short timeframe. The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age."

"It is troubling that this incident has come to light. I can assure you that the members of the Braintree Police Department maintain the highest of integrity. Since it was discovered this morning that the report is missing, I have been in contact with Mayor Joseph Sullivan. Mayor Sullivan and I have spoken with District Attorney William Keating and we will be meeting with him next week to discuss this situation. The Mayor supports a full review of this matter and agrees that we want to know where the records are."
http://www.necn.com/02/13/10/Chief-Fraziers-statement-on-Amy-Bishop/landing.html?blockID=180081&feedID=4215

Thanks Nut.  This told me what I wanted to know. Pump-Action.  Fired three shots in the home, one which killed her brother.  Amy Bishop had to pump that shot gun each and every time she fired it.  The shot fired into the ceiling on the way out speaks volumes, imo.  If shooting her brother has somehow been a terrible accident, wouldn't she have laid the 12 gauge down?  Not go shoot it again?  She sounds to me like she was pizzed, not sad or horrified.  JMHO

Alleged University Shooter Was Suspect in Harvard Professor Bomb Attempt
Sunday, February 14, 2010
 An Alabama professor accused of shooting six colleagues was a suspect in the attempted mailing bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor in December of 1993, the Boston Globe reported.

Amy Bishop and her husband James Anderson were questioned by authorities after a package with two bombs were sent to Dr. Paul Rosenberg, the newspaper reported.

When Rosenberg saw the long, thin package had wires and a cylinder inside, he and his wife called police and ran from their Newton, Mass. home Dec. 19, 1993, the Globe reported.

Two 6-inch pipe bombs connected to two nine-volt batteries were found in the package.

The new information comes a day after information surfaced that Bishop killed her brother. The 1986 shooting was ruled accidental and no charges were filed against her.
Bishop, who has four children, was arrested soon after the violent Friday shooting and charged with capital murder. Other charges are pending. Her husband was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged.

Three of her colleagues were killed in shooting, and a 9 mm handgun was found in the bathroom of the building where the shootings occurred.
Bishop, a rare woman suspected of a workplace shooting, had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville because she was denied tenure.

Several months after a federal investigation into the Harvard medical professor's attempted bombing a prime suspect was identified, but never named.

But, an unnamed law enforcement official told the Globe Sunday the suspect was Bishop, and her husband.

At the time, Bishop was a Harvard doctoral student working at the same hospital Rosenberg was.

The official told the Globe Bishop was suspected because she was allegedly concerned she was going to be given a bad evaluation from to professor on her doctorate work.

Her house was searched and she and her husband were questioned, but the U.S. attorney's office in Boston never brought charges against the couple, the Globe reported.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585854,00.html?test=latestnews

 ::MonkeyEek::   Wow.

 ::MonkeyEek:: ::MonkeyEek::  I wonder what else there is that could be told about Amy Bishop?  ::MonkeyShocked:: 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7026844.ece
February 15, 2010
Shooting spree professor Amy Bishop ‘was let off for killing brother’
A Harvard-educated professor who went on a shooting rampage at the University of Alabama may have escaped charges for the killing of her teenage brother in 1986 because of a police cover-up.

Amy Bishop, a 42-year-old neurobiologist, could face the death penalty for allegedly shooting dead the chairman of the biology department and two other professors on Friday after being denied a permanent university post. Two professors and an assistant were wounded.

The shooting has prompted police to reopen the case of her younger brother’s death in 1986
<snipped>

I don't know.It will be interesting to see what comes of this.
After my sidekick gets his turn on the laptop I will be doing some searching.   ::MonkeyHaHa::   ::CowboySmiley::

It will be interesting to see what you might dig up  ::MonkeyShovel::

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585823,00.html
RAW DATA: 1986 Police Report on Shooting Involving Alabama Professor

Sunday, February 14, 2010
 March 30, 1987

To: First Assistant District Attorney John P. Kivlan

From: Trooper Brian L. Howe #1332 BLH

Subject: Accidental Shooting of Seth Bishop, White Male,

D.O.B. 4/9/68 At 46 Hollis Avenue, Braintree, Massachusetts on December 6, 1986.

Case: # 86-112-0910-0185

On December 6, 1986, this officer was directed by Detective Lieutenant James Sharkey to conduct an investigation into the fatal shooting of Seth Bishop at his residence of 46 Hollis Avenue in the Town of Braintree.

This officer contacted Captain Theodore Buker of the Braintree Police Department and was informed by Captain Buker that at approximately 1422 hours on December 6, 1986, the Braintree Police Department had responded to the report of a shooting a 46 Hollis Avenue in their town.

Upon arriving at the location, Officers Jordan and Murphy had observed the decedent lying on his back on the floor in a pool of blood in the kitchen area, with a large chest wound.

Paramedics responded to the scene and after administering preliminary first aid, transported the victim to the Quincy City Hospital where he was subsequently pronounced dead at 1506 hours, by Dr. Thomas Divinigracia. Initial cause of death of a victim was reported to be a ruptured aorta as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Captain Buker stated that preliminary investigation conducted by Officers Jordan and Murphy indicated that the victim had been shot by his sister, Amy Bishop (age 19), and that apparent cause of the gunshot discharge into the victim had been accidental in nature. Captain Buker further stated that indications were that Amy Bishop had been attempting to manipulate the shotgun and had subsequently brought the gun downstairs in an attempt to gain assistance from her mother in disarming the weapon.
During her attempt to disarm the weapon in the kitchen of her residence, the weapon had apparently accidentally discharged, resulting in the fatal wound inflicted upon her brother.

Captain Buker further stated that at the time the discharge occurred, Judy Bishop, the mother of both the victim and Amy, had been in the kitchen and had witnessed the entire incident. Judy Bishop had indicated to the responding officers that the discharge had been accidental in nature and that the discharge had occurred while Amy was attempting to unload the weapon.

Captain Buker also stated that Amy Bishop had fled the residence immediately upon discharging the weapon and had subsequently been located by Braintree Officers and brought to the Braintree Police Department for questioning.

Captain Buker stated that due to the highly emotional state of Amy Bishop, it had generally been impossible to question her while she was at the Braintree Police Department relative to the circumstances of the firearm discharge, and that as a result of these facts, she was thereupon released to the custody of her parents with further investigation to follow at a future time.

This officer therefor determined that due to the inability to question the witnesses at that time as a result of their highly emotional state and their inability to recall specifically the facts relating to this occurrence, as well as the fact that Judy Bishop stated that she had witnessed the entire affair and the discharge had been accidental in nature, it was determined that additional interviews would be conducted at a later time, allowing the witnesses a sufficient time to stabilize their emotions.

On December 6, 1986, an autopsy was conducted on Seth bishop at the Qyuincy City Hospital by Dr. George Katsas with Dr. William Riddle in attendance. The autopsy began at approximately 2000 hours with the cause of death having been determined to be the result of a shotgun discharge to the left chest area.

It should also be noted that a check of firearms identification cards at Braintree Police Department indicated and F.I.D. card issued to Seth bishop, card #H590682, as well as n F.I.D. card issued to Samuel Bishop father of SEth, card #H590724.
Captain Buker had also indicated to this officer that numerous photographs had been taken at the scene of the shooting as well as at the autopsty coundcted on the victim.

The weapon which had been utilized in the death of Seth Bishop had been secured by the Braintree Police Department for firther processing by the State Police Ballistics Laboratory.

Arrangements were subsequently made to conduct interviews of all of the members of the Bishop family and thereupon, on December 17, 1986, this officer, Captian Theodore Buker and Detective Michael Carey of the Braintree Police Department procdeede to 46 Hollis Avenue in the Town of Braintree.

Individually, Samuel, Judy, and Amy Bishop were interviewed by these officers with the resulting statments taken.

Samuel Bishop stated that he had not been in the residence at the time of the shooting, He said that he had left the house at approximately 1130 hours to go shopping at the South Shore Plaza. He stated that at the time he left the residence, his son Seth had been washing his car, Amy was the house and his wife, Judy, was due to be home at sometime between 1100 and 1200 hours. Samuel stated that he had a disagrrment with Amy before he left about a comment that she made, and that she had gone to her room prior to his departing. He stated that upon his return to the residence, police and ambulance were at the house and that he was adivsed of the situation relating to the shooting of his son.

When questioned as to the actual possession of the shotgun within his residence, he stated that he had bought the shotgun at Coleman's Sporting Goods in Canton, approximately one year previously, and that he and his son, Seth, had belonged to the Braintree Rifle Club. He stated that the gun had been unloaded, on top of a trunk in a rifle case in his upstairs bedroom also. He further stated that Amy had not been trained in the use of the weapon and that the weapon had orginally been purchased for family protection as a result of a previous housebreak at their residence.
These officer then interviewed Judy Bishop, the mother of the victim who stated that on the day of the shooting, she had left the house at approximately 0700 hours and that ll other family members had been in the house at the time. She stated that she returned to the residence to see if there was anything for lunch, and that at this time, Seth was home and stated that he would go to the store to pick up some food so that they could all have lunch.

Judy further stated that Seth returned from the grocery store, went into the livingroom and turned on television. She stated that he was on his way into the kitchen when Amy came downstairs with the shotgun, and asked Judy if she could help her unload the gun. Judy state that she told Amy not to point the gun at anyone, and that Amy then turned, and in doing so, somehow discharged the weapon which subsequently hit her son Seth who was walking into the kitchen from the living room.

Judy stated that she screamed and theupon Amy ran out of the house. Judy state that she then called the police and waited at the front door fo the arrival of the police, but she further added that she knew that Seth could not live as the result of the injury which he had received.

When questioned relative to any prior discharges of the weapon inside the residence on the day in question, Judy stated that she did not hear any other shots fired, in particular, and shots fired in the upstairs bedroom, but she believed that the house was realtively well soundproofed and that such a discharge would not necessarily be hear on another floor of the house.

Judy state that she did not feel that she had any knowledge of any other relvant facts relating to the investigation to convey to these officers.

These officers then conducted an interview with Amy Bishop who stated that on the morning of the shooting, her mother had gone out and that her father had gone shopping. Amy stated that she did not know where her brother was during the day but thought that it would be a good idea if she learned how to load the shotgun in the house. Amy stated that she was concerned for her own safety on occasions as a result of the break which had previously occurred at their home, and she often read and heard of stories about things that happened when people break into houses and find other people inside.
Amy stated that she got the gun from her parents' room where she found it on the chest and the bullets were on the bureau. She stated that she put the shells into the gun and then tried to get them out but was unsuccessful in doing this even though she attempted to unscrew the bottom casing of the gun. She stated that while she was attempting to unload the weapon which was on her bed, it discharged into her room, but that she is unsure as whether or not her bedroom door was open at the time. She stated that she was beside her bed near the door at the time that the gun discharged, but that she couldn't specifically recall seeing anything coming out of the gun.

Amy further stated that she does not recall putting any additional bullets into the gun after it discharged, and that she then unscrewed the bottom of the shaft in an attempt to empty the weapon, and when being unable to empty the weapon this way, she stated that she then screwed the bottom of the shaft back on.

Amy stated that she then heard her brother come into the house downstairs and she went right downstairs to ask Seth to help her unload the gun. She said apparently her mother had been in the kitchen for awhile and that Amy went down the front set of stairs, through the dining room, to the door by the kitchen. She stated that she asked her brother to unload the weapon because she thought it might still be loaded and she added that her mother said something to her but she does not specifically recall what it was.

Amy said that she was carrying the gun pointed beside her leg, and that Seth told her to point the gun up. Amy stated that Seth was walking across the kitchen between Amy and her mother and that Amy had the gun in one hand and started to raise it. Amy further stated that someone said something to her and she turned and the gun went off. She stated that she remembered her brother saying, "Oh God," and her mother screaming, and that Amy though that she had ruined the kitchen but was not aware of the fact that she had struck her brother with the shotgun discharge.
Amy stated that she then immediately ran out the rear door of the kitchen and thought that she had dropped the gun as she ran away. She stated that at the time the gun went off, she was by the dining room door to the kitchen. Amy also said that she does not recall putting on a jacket prior to running out of the house or leaving the house with the gun and that she cannot recall anything else until she subsequently saw her mother at the police station.

Amy did tell these officers that her brother Seth had verbally told her previously how to hold the gun but that she had always previously been afraid of it. Amy concluded the investigation by saying that she had previously made no attempt to cover up the hole in her bedroom wall which apparently, according to her, was the result of the previous discharge in her bedroom.

Amy stated that she was not aware of any additional facts which could assist these officers in their investigation into the death of her brother, and she reiterated adamantly that the discharge had been accidental and that she was still having a very difficult time dealing with what had occurred and was currently under medication with a doctor's care.

As a result of these foregoing facts, a meeting was conducted between this officer, Captain Buker and Detective Carey. It was determined that due to the testimony of the members of the Bishop family and, in particular, to the testimony of Judy Bishop relevant to the facts concerning the death of Seth Bishop that no further investigation into the death of Seth Bishop was warranted.

It was therefore determined that the cause of death of Seth Bishop would be listed as the accidental discharge of his sister, Amy Bishop, and that the investigation would be concluded.

http://www.decaturdaily.com/detail/53564.html
 2/14/10 |   5 comments
Colleague says suspect ‘aloof, superior’
By Eric Fleischauer
Staff Writer
The UAH professor accused of killing three colleagues Friday once called herself aloof, arrogant and superior, and a colleague did not disagree.

Psychology professor Eric Seemann also said he knew biological sciences assistant professor Amy Bishop was stressed about an adverse tenure decision, but he was shocked at how she dealt with her frustration.

Bishop, also referred to as Amy Bishop-Anderson by authorities, has been charged with capital murder. She is accused of killing three professors in her department — including department chair Gopi Podila — and wounding two professors and a staff member who were attending a faculty meeting.
‘Personal beef’

“What she told me was there were some people in her department — she did not name them — who had a personal beef with her,” Seemann said. “She said one or more of those people were directly involved with her tenure decision.”

Seemann said he had no clue Bishop’s frustration would lead her to the alleged shootings.

“She was sounding a little paranoid. I’m not sure she was taking responsibility for her part in the tenure decisions,” Seemann said of a conversation he had with her in November.

Seemann joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s psychology department the same year Bishop joined its biological sciences department. Both were eligible for tenure in March 2009.

‘Not on list’

“They sent out the letter of everyone that was tenured,” Seemann said. “Amy’s name was not on the list.”

Bishop told Seemann she had hired attorneys to appeal the adverse decision, but in December she told him she was frustrated at her attorneys’ lack of progress.

The psychology professor said his counseling and forensics practices have exposed him to plenty of people with inclinations toward violence, but he saw no such signs in Bishop. He watched media reports as the public tried to understand what had happened.
How could this be?’

“I’m thinking, wow, who could this be? My thinking was some student went crackers and shot up a bunch of people for various reasons.

“Then they said it was a female, and I’m thinking it’s a female student who shot a bunch of people because of a lover’s triangle. Then they say a female staff member, and I’m thinking, ‘Who could that be?’ ”

Only when he heard the next report did it occur to him.

“Then they said biological sciences, and I thought, oh crap, it’s Amy Bishop. Because she’s the only one I knew in biological sciences that was under a tenure constraint.”

Bishop, who is in her 40s and the mother of four, was seen as an excellent researcher. Seemann said her dealings with other faculty members, however, hampered her efforts at tenure.

‘Given a raw deal’

“I saw her at a spring (2009) orientation for the new freshmen,” Seemann said. “She said she was not tenured and she felt like she had been given a raw deal.”

Despite her excellent research ability, Seemann was not surprised she struggled to obtain tenure.

“Amy was kind of hard to get along with,” he said. “I’ve talked to people who said, ‘Wow, she can be really arrogant,’ or be really headstrong. I knew that to be true. But at the same time she was brilliant. She was really one of UAH’s rising research stars. People I know in biological sciences would say, ‘She’s a great researcher, but she’s lousy to work with.’ ”

She was brilliant and she knew it.

“At one meeting I was with Amy, she was complaining to a group of us. She said she was denied tenure not because she was a lousy researcher — she’s not, quite the opposite — and not because she didn’t have good classes, she believed she did — I think some might say otherwise — but because she was accused of being arrogant, aloof and superior. And she said, ‘I am.
She said, ‘I am arrogant, I am aloof and I am superior in my attitude. But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to get along with people.’ ”

Seemann’s recollection of his frequent dealings with Bishop continued the theme.

‘I was arrogant’

“During a conversation she and I had at one point, she said she got into an argument with another faculty member who accused her of being arrogant and acting like she was better than him, and she told me, ‘That’s because I was arrogant and I was better than him.’ But that was in the context of a heated argument,” Seemann said.

“I think Amy was a little easy to provoke.”

He said his impression was students tried to avoid taking her classes.

“The comments I heard from students over the last several years was that she was brilliant, but she couldn’t teach and she’s was not personable.”

Seemann suspects Bishop had an unrealistic view of the likelihood of a successful appeal of her tenure denial.

Appealed decision

“Amy told me in November that she filed an appeal through the university and had retained an attorney. The appeal was based on her belief that somebody had a personal gripe with her on the tenure committee, and that she asked that the person or persons — there may have been more than one — be removed,” Seemann recalled.

“That request was denied. The appeal went through the appeals process. Amy told me she believed that there was a good chance of the appeal working.”

Despite her expressed hopes, Seemann said tenure denials rarely get reversed.

Seemann stressed he did not know what happened at Friday’s biology faculty meeting before Bishop allegedly began shooting, but he knew the deadline for final decisions on tenure appeals was nearing.
“I do not believe that a faculty would tell one person in front of other people, ‘By the way you’re not getting tenure, clean out your office.’ I can’t imagine that’s what happened. My guess is that Amy probably pushed the issue.

“I’ve seen her do that before, where she would ask a question, someone would say let’s discuss it later, and she would just become more insistent until someone said either just shut up or here it is, and it’s not what you wanted.

“I don’t know it for a fact, but I’m guessing she pushed the issue.”

Remains stunned

Seemann said he remains stunned by the shooting.

“Nowhere in any of my discussions with her did I get the idea that she was violent or that she had this inclination to bring a pistol to a meeting,” Seemann said. Behind the most tragic loss in Friday’s shootings — the death of three faculty members and the wounding of three others — is another tragedy, Seemann said.

“It’s not like she would never have another job,” Seemann said. “With the research she did, there are other universities that, if she threw her hat in the air, they’d be lining up to hire her.

“She’s not some random schmuck. She’s Harvard educated. She could have doubled her salary going to these other schools. For whatever reason, she was so ego-invested that not being here was intolerable.”

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/braintree_promi_1.html
Braintree promises search for records in Bishop case

 February 14, 2010 06:34 PM
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

The mayor of Braintree said today that the town and its police department would work with the Norfolk County district attorney's office to locate all materials relating to the 1986 fatal shooting by Amy Bishop of her brother, Seth Bishop, a case that is drawing new interest because Amy Bishop was charged with shooting six people on Friday in Alabama.

The town and the police recognize "the importance of transparency ... The Braintree Police Department will conduct a thorough audit of all its records to identify if there were deficits in its past record keeping process," Mayor Joseph C. Sullivan said today in a statement.

The statement came after Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier on Saturday raised troubling questions about the handling of the case in his town, saying that a police report on the Dec. 6, 1986 shooting was missing and that the officer who prepared it remembered the shooting as happening during an argument, even though the State Police later ruled it was an accident.

More than two decades later, Amy Bishop now stands accused of shooting six of her colleagues – three of them fatally – at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Sullivan promised that the results of the review would be shared with the public and with law enforcement agencies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/us/15alabama.html
Murder Suspect Was Questioned in Plot Against Professor
 
By SHAILA DEWAN and KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: February 14, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The husband of a neuroscientist accused of fatally shooting three colleagues and wounding three others on Friday said he did not know she had a gun when she went to a faculty meeting that day, nor did he know how she got it. And he also confirmed that the two were questioned in a 1993 bomb plot against a Harvard professor.
The husband, James Anderson, speaking for a few minutes outside his door on Sunday afternoon, said he had “no idea” that his wife, Amy Bishop, took the gun to the campus on Friday, saying, “We don’t own one.”

Mr. Anderson said the family’s lawyer had instructed him not to speak with reporters about his wife and that he needed to get back to the couple’s four children.

But, he said, “She was a loved teacher, everybody loved her. They gave her high marks.”

The Boston Globe reported on Sunday that the couple had been questioned in the 1993 mail bombing plot against Dr. Paul Rosenberg, a Harvard Medical School professor.

But Mr. Anderson said the couple had been cleared in the pipe bomb investigation. “We were not suspects,” he said. “They questioned everybody that ever knew this guy.”

Mr. Anderson said that he had already told the Huntsville police that they might come across the incident during their investigation.

“That was a disaster,” he said of the investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “That was a mess. In my files I have a letter from the A.T.F. saying, ‘You are hereby cleared in this incident. You are no longer a subject of the investigation.’ ”

The Globe said investigators searched Dr. Bishop’s and Mr. Anderson’s home, but the United States Attorney’s office did not seek any charges against them, and no one was ever charged in the case. Dr. Rosenberg was not harmed, having fled his house after spotting wires and a cylinder on the package.

Sylvia Fluckiger, who worked as a lab technician at Children’s Hospital with Dr. Bishop and Dr. Rosenberg, said she had talked to Dr. Bishop about the Rosenberg investigation. She said Dr. Bishop “had a smirk on her face” when asked about the incident. “I don’t know why she was smirking — it was a funny expression on her face,” she said.

“We did know that there was a dispute between Paul Rosenberg and her,” Ms. Fluckiger said, adding that she couldn’t remember what it was about.

On Saturday, the police in Huntsville charged Dr. Bishop, 45, with capital murder in the shootings Friday that also left three people wounded during a faculty meeting. Dr. Bishop, who appeared to have had a promising future in the biotechnology business, had recently been told she would not be granted tenure, university officials said.

The latest revelations about the 1993 plot came after word that Dr. Bishop was linked to another death.

On Saturday afternoon, the police in Braintree, Mass., announced that 24 years ago, Dr. Bishop had fatally wounded her brother, Seth Bishop, in an argument at their home, which The Boston Globe first reported on its Web site. The police were considering reopening the case, in which Dr. Bishop was not charged and the report by the officer on duty at the time was no longer available, said Paul Frazier, the Braintree police chief.

“The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers,” Chief Frazier said in a statement, “and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.” He said at a news conference on Saturday that the original account describing the shooting as an accident had been inaccurate and, The Globe said, that while he was reluctant to use the word “cover-up,” it did not “look good” that the detailed records of the case have been missing since 1988.

Dr. Bishop, a grant-winning scientist and mother of four, is now charged with murder. If convicted, she would be eligible for the death penalty in Alabama.

Dr. Bishop was part of a biotechnology start-up that had won an early round of financing in a highly competitive environment, but people who knew her said she had learned shortly before the shooting that she had been denied tenure at the university.

Mr. Anderson said Sunday that Dr. Bishop’s tenure appeal had been upheld by the review board, but the university administration had overruled the board’s finding. “She won her appeal,” he said, “and the provost canned it.”

He said his wife’s research was generating “millions” for the university, that she had published numerous papers, and was a good professor. “She exceeded the qualifications for tenure,” he said. “The review board said ‘grant it, or go through the process again.’”

The lawyer his wife hired “was finding one problem after another with the process,” he said, and there was a dispute over whether two papers had been published in time to count.

On Friday, Dr. Bishop presided over her regular anatomy and neurosciences class before going to an afternoon faculty meeting on the third floor of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology.

There she sat quietly for about 30 or 40 minutes, said one faculty member who had spoken to some of the dozen people who were in the room. Then Dr. Bishop pulled out a 9-millimeter handgun and began shooting, firing several rounds, the police said. At least one person in the room tried to stop Dr. Bishop and prevent further bloodshed, said Sgt. Mark Roberts of the Huntsville Police Department.

Dr. Bishop stopped shooting when the gun either jammed or ran out of ammunition, the faculty member said.

After Dr. Bishop left the room, the police said, she dumped the gun — for which she did not have a permit — in a second-floor bathroom. The people still in the conference room barred the door, fearing she would return, the faculty member said.

Dr. Bishop was arrested outside the building minutes later, Sergeant Roberts said at a morning news conference on Saturday.

The 911 call came at 4:10 p.m., the authorities said. Few students were in the building, and none were involved in the shooting, said Ray Garner, a university spokesman. At the time, Dr. Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, was across the street from the campus, where he worked at the start-up company, Prodigy Biosystems, said Dick Reeves, the company chairman. He left to pick up his wife, apparently having no idea what had happened, Mr. Reeves said.

Officials said the dead were all biology professors: G. K. Podila, the department’s chairman, who is a native of India, according to a family friend who answered the phone at his house; Maria Ragland Davis; and Adriel D. Johnson Sr. Two other biology professors, Luis Rogelio Cruz-Vera and Joseph G. Leahy, as well as a professor’s assistant, Stephanie Monticciolo, were at Huntsville Hospital. Mr. Cruz-Vera was in fair condition; the others were in critical condition.

Mr. Garner said Dr. Bishop, who arrived in the 2003-4 academic year, was first told last spring that she had been denied tenure. If a tenure-track professor is not granted tenure after six years, the university will no longer employ them, Mr. Garner said. This would have been the final semester of Dr. Bishop’s sixth year.

The university does have an appeals process, and people who knew Dr. Bishop said she had appealed the decision.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35397792/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
Accused shooter linked to Harvard bomb plot
More details emerge from Alabama professor’s past linking her to case

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

The scientist who is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama had been a key suspect in an attempted bomb plot at Harvard in 1993, police officials told The Boston Globe on Sunday.

Authorities questioned Amy Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, in March 1993 after a bomb-laden package was delivered to a Harvard professor and doctor at Boston's Children's Hospital, the Globe reported.

The plot was the latest revelation linking Bishop to past investigations. Bishop is accused of shooting to death three colleagues during a faculty meeting on the University of Alabama's Hunstville, Ala. campus on Friday.
Bishop, who has four children, was arrested soon after the shooting and charged with capital murder. Other charges are pending. Her husband was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged.

In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, Mass., home. She told police at the time that she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged.

Authorities released her and said the episode was a tragic accident. She was never charged, though police Chief Paul Frazier on Saturday questioned how the investigation was handled.

Bomb sent to doctor
In the Harvard plot, a police official told the Globe that Bishop's name surfaced as a suspect because she was allegedly concerned about getting a negative evaluation on her doctorate work from Dr. Paul Rosenberg.

During the initial investigation, Rosenberg told police that he had received a thin, long package addressed to him and soon discovered that was filled with wires and a cylinder, according to the Globe.

The package had contained two pipe bombs, which were hooked up two nine-volt batteries, the Globe reported.

During a search of Bishop's computer, investigators discovered a draft of a story that Bishop had written about a female scientist who had killed her brother and was hoping to find redemption in life my becoming a great scientist, the Globe reported.

Bishop and her husband were never charged in the Harvard plot.

'It was just a normal day'
Back in Alabama, some of Bishop's colleagues, including William Setzer, chairman of the department of chemistry, told The Associated Press they did not know about Bishop's past.

Alabama police said the gun she is accused of using in Friday's shooting was not registered, and investigators don't know how or where she got it.

Just after the shooting, her husband James Anderson told the Chronicle, she called and asked him to pick her up. She never mentioned the shooting, he said.

Anderson said his wife had an attorney but would not say who it was. He declined further comment to The Associated Press on Sunday. However, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier in the day that he had no idea his wife had a gun — nor did he know of any threats or plans to carry out the shooting when he dropped her off at the faculty meeting Friday.

Even in the days and hours before the shooting, Bishop's friends, colleagues and students said she was acting like the intelligent — but odd — professor they knew.

UAH student Andrew Cole was in Bishop's anatomy class Friday morning and said she seemed perfectly normal. Kourtney Lattimore, 19, a sophomore studying nursing who had Bishop for anatomy and physiology courses, said she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

"She was fine. It was a normal day," Lattimore said.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/22557530/detail.html
Alabama Shooting Suspect Had Killed Brother In Braintree
D.A. Delahunt Cleared Amy Bishop In 1986 Braintree Slaying
POSTED: 3:28 pm EST February 13, 2010
UPDATED: 9:01 am EST February 14, 2010
BRAINTREE, Mass. --
The biology professor accused of gunning down five colleagues and a staff member at the University of Alabama at Huntsville on Friday was released from police custody 23 years ago after she shot and killed her brother in Braintree, police announced Saturday.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier said Amy Bishop was detained following the death of her brother on Dec. 6, 1986, then released without being charged because the death was ruled an accidental shooting.

Frazier said Amy Bishop shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth Bishop, in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun at the family’s home in Braintree, then ran into the street and aimed the gun at a passing vehicle before fleeing from the scene. Amy Bishop, who was 20 at the time, was arrested at gunpoint by Braintree officers.

Bishop was never booked, however, and all local police records of the case have gone missing, with the exception of an entry in the police log noting an accidental shooting, Frazier said.

Braintree Police Department
"The report's gone, removed from the files," he said. "Somebody has it. We don't."

The police chief said Saturday that he planned to meet with the local district attorney over the possibility of launching a criminal investigation into how the Bishop case was handled.

The Massachusetts State Police also filed a six-page report about the shooting, dated March 30, 1987, which was released by the Norfolk District Attorney's office on Saturday.

A story on the shooting in the Quincy Patriot Ledger newspaper quoted Bishop's mother, Judith Bishop, saying the gun accidentally went off into a bedroom wall when her daughter was trying to teach herself to use it in case the home was burglarized. Amy Bishop then asked her brother to help her unload the gun when it went off again, killing him in front of her, Judith Bishop told the newspaper.

Amy Bishop, now 44, faces a capital murder charge in Friday's campus shooting, which left three biology professors dead and another two critically wounded. A university staff member was also hurt.

Braintree officers who remember the 1986 shooting said that former police Chief John Polio dismissed detectives from the case and ordered the department to release Amy Bishop after a telephone conversation with former district attorney William Delahunt, who is currently a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts.

"The police officers here were very upset about that," said Frazier, who was a patrolman at the time and spoke to officers who remembered the incident that day, including one who filed a report on it.

When contacted Saturday, Polio, now 86, said that there was no cover up in Seth Bishop’s death, though there were questions about whether the shooting was an accident.

"I remember Judy Bishop and that she had two children and I know that they got into an argument one day and somehow a shot got involved, or a weapon of some kind, and it went off, according to them by accident. According to the mother and to the daughter, by the daughter," Polio said in a telephone interview with The Patriot Ledger.


Polio told NewsCenter 5 he has no memory of telling officers to go home. He said there was an inquest by Delahunt’s office and that the district attorney found that the shooting did not warrant charges. Polio said he doesn’t know how the records would have gone missing.

"Whatever we had we gave to the DA. An inquiry was conducted and no complaint was issued. So as far as I was concerned, that was the end of it," Polio said in the phone interview. "As far I'm concerned, everything that was done that should have been was done correctly. All reports went to the DA, they called it. When people start making innuendos of a cover up or this or that, it upsets me.”

Before she was hired as an assistant professor by the University of Alabama in 2003, Bishop studied at Harvard University in the Division of Medical Sciences, according to Harvard spokesman David Cameron. Bishop received her PhD in June 1993.

A University of Alabama at Huntsville spokesman told The Associated Press that Bishop had been denied tenure before she was held Friday in the campus shooting.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/22564239/detail.html
Ala. Prof's Family, Friends: No Hint Of Violence
Amy Bishop Seemed Normal Before Shooting, Witnesses Say
POSTED: 7:25 pm EST February 14, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. --


An Alabama professor accused of shooting six colleagues was vocal in her resentment over being denied tenure and the looming loss of her teaching post, though relatives and students said she had never suggested she might become violent.

Not even Amy Bishop's husband knew she might turn violent, according to the man's father. Everyone from family and friends to her students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville said the intelligent and at times awkward teacher seemed normal in the hours before police say she opened fire in a faculty meeting Friday afternoon, leaving three dead and another three wounded.

Jim Anderson -- the father of Bishop's husband, James Anderson -- told The Associated Press on Sunday his son had no idea Bishop was planning the bloodshed she's accused of.

"He knew nothing. He didn't know anything," the father said. He said that the police had spoken with his son at length and that "they are doing a good job."

Indeed, there were many things Bishop apparently did not reveal to those around her.

In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, Mass., home. She told police at the time that she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged. In all, three shots were fired: Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier said she shot once into a wall, then shot her brother, then fired a third time into the ceiling.

Authorities released her and said the episode was a tragic accident. She was never charged, though Frazier on Saturday questioned how the investigation was handled.

Some of Bishop's colleagues, including William Setzer, chairman of the department of chemistry, told The Associated Press they did not know about her brother's death.

Police say the gun she's accused of using in the Alabama shooting wasn't registered, and investigators don't know how or where she got it.

Bishop, who has four children, was arrested soon after the shooting and charged with capital murder. Other charges are pending. Her husband was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged.

James Anderson said his wife had an attorney but would not say who it was. He declined further comment to The Associated Press on Sunday. However, he told the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier in the day that he had no idea his wife had a gun -- nor did he know of any threats or plans to carry out the shooting when he dropped her off at the faculty meeting Friday.

Just after the shooting, Anderson told the Chronicle, she called and asked him to pick her up. She never mentioned the shooting, he said.

Even in the days and hours before the shooting, Bishop's friends, colleagues and students said she was acting like the intelligent -- but odd -- professor they knew.

UAH student Andrew Cole was in Bishop's anatomy class Friday morning and said she seemed perfectly normal. Kourtney Lattimore, 19, a sophomore studying nursing who had Bishop for anatomy and physiology courses, said she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

"She was fine. It was a normal day," Lattimore said.

Bishop had worked closely for three years with Dick Reeves, who had been CEO of BizTech, which had been working with her to market a cell incubator she invented to replace traditional equipment used in live cell cultures. Bishop often mentioned the issue of tenure in their discussions, Reeves said.

"It was important to her," he said.

However, the two had spoken as early as Wednesday, and Reeves said she showed no signs of distress.

Tenure -- a type of job-for-life security afforded academics -- is often a stressful process for anyone up for review, Setzer said. Bishop was up front about the issue, often bringing it up in meetings where the subject wasn't appropriate.

"That was another thing that made her different," Setzer said. "In committee meetings she didn't pretend that it wasn't happening or anything. She was even loud about it: That they denied her tenure and she was appealing it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

Some have said the shootings stemmed from Bishop's tenure dispute, though authorities have refused to discuss a motive. Andrea Bennett, a sophomore majoring in nursing and an athlete at UAH, said a coach told her team that Bishop had been denied tenure, which the coach said may have led to the shooting.

Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Three people were wounded. Two of them -- Joseph Leahy and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo -- were in critical condition early Sunday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, had been released from the hospital.

Sammie Lee Davis, Davis' husband, said in a brief phone interview that he was told a faculty member got angry while discussing tenure at the meeting and started shooting. He said his wife had described Bishop as "not being able to deal with reality" and "not as good as she thought she was."

Bishop was calm as she got into a police car Friday, denying that the shootings occurred. "It didn't happen. There's no way. ... They are still alive."

http://www.necn.com/02/14/10/Amy-Bishop-at-time-of-1993-mail-bomb-inv/landing.html?blockID=180453&feedID=4215
Amy Bishop at time of 1993 mail bomb investigation
(Video Available at Link)
(NECN: John Moroney) - The woman accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville was a suspect in a 1993 attempted mail bombing, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

The report broke the day after it was learned that Bishop fatally shot her brother in Braintree in 1986.

More than fifteen years ago, Bishop worked with Sylvia Fluckiger at Children's Hospital in Boston.

"I thought she was an odd-ball. Maybe socially a little awkward," Fluckiger said.  "I felt she was a little bit sloppy working in the lab. But we were not friends. She came to do her came to her experiments in our lab. I had my stuff to be done. We didn't hang out."

In 1993, Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were reportedly questioned about a mail bomb that was sent to the Newton home of Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Paul Rosenberg.

Colleagues at Children's Hospital were suspicious at the time, because Bishop was apparently angry at Dr. Rosenberg, although no one knew why.

"The water cooler talk was, if it was, and that was a big if, she probably couldn't have done it but her husband was a thinker. And I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but that's how people talked."

Sylvia and her husband Rudolph worked together at Children's Hospital in the early 1990s.  She was a lab technician, he was a researcher.  Bishop helped Rudolph Fluckiger write a research paper as a medical student.

"I didn't sit and have a meal with her, or sometimes one would get the stare when I'd like to discuss science, as if she wasn't really with it," Fluckiger said.

NECN attempted to reach Dr. Rosenberg, but he was not home on Sunday.

James Anderson told The New York Times that he and his wife were cleared in the mail bomb investigation and were never suspects.

Same story as you must posted, Muffy, just another source.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/ala_slay_suspec.html


  Alleged Ala. killer was suspect in attempted bombing of Harvard professor


So this is covered by more than one source.  This woman was a one-person crime wave it seems.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/14/alabama.university.shooting/?hpt=T1
Report details '86 shooting involving Alabama professor
February 14, 2010 8:39 p.m. EST

CNN) -- A biology professor charged with killing three faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville fatally shot her brother more than 23 years ago, but she and her mother claimed the shooting was accidental, according to documents released Sunday.

Amy Bishop Anderson was 19 when she fatally shot her brother, Seth, on December 6, 1986, in Braintree, Massachusetts, according to a Massachusetts State Police report released Sunday. She was never charged in that shooting.

Anderson was charged this weekend with capital murder in Friday's on-campus shooting deaths of her colleagues. She could face the death penalty.

The state police report in the 1986 shooting, released by the office of U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Massachusetts, gives an account similar to a Boston Globe story published on December 8, 2008. Delahunt was district attorney at the time; staffers said he was in the Middle East on Sunday and unable to comment on the case.
Earlier this weekend, Braintree police said records from that shooting were missing, and that the department's log indicated the shooting was accidental. However, Police Chief Paul Frazier said he didn't agree with the Globe's account.

The Globe's story stated that Anderson asked her mother how to unload a round from a 12-gauge shotgun and that Anderson -- then known as Amy Bishop -- accidentally shot her brother while she was handling the weapon. The article cited then-Police Chief John Polio as the source.

According to the state police report released Sunday, Braintree police told state police that "indications were that Amy Bishop had been attempting to manipulate the shotgun and had subsequently brought the gun downstairs in an attempt to gain assistance from her mother in disarming the weapon" when it went off, shooting her brother, Seth, in the chest.

But, Frazier said Saturday, "it is a far different story I believe than what was reported back then. I cannot tell you what the thought process was behind our releasing her at the time."

An officer then involved in the case who is still working for the department told him that Anderson shot her brother during an argument, Frazier said.

The officer said Anderson allegedly fired a shot in her bedroom without hitting anyone, argued with her brother, shot him and then fired another round in the home before fleeing, according to Frazier.

Frazier said the teen was arrested after pointing a weapon at a vehicle near the house in an attempt to get the driver to stop, but it drove on. But during the booking process, then-Chief Polio called and told the officers to release her, Frazier said. He said her mother was at the time a member of the Braintree Personnel Board.

In a telephone call with CNN, Polio, now 87 and retired, denied ever calling in the order. He said detectives including lead investigator Capt. Theodore Buker -- who has since died -- had interviewed Anderson and her mother, Judith, who is identified in the state police report as J. Bishop.

Buker told him that the shooting appeared accidental and the two men agreed she should be released to her mother, Polio said. A request was then filed with Delahunt's office to conduct an inquiry, but Delahunt never did so, he said.

The state police report, however, said that Buker met with a state police investigator and determined that "due to the testimony of the members of the Bishop family, and in particular the testimony of J. Bishop, relevant to the facts concerning the death of Seth Bishop that no further investigation ... was warranted," the report concludes. Seth Bishop's death was listed as accidental and the investigation was concluded.

Delahunt spokesman Mark Forest told CNN the state police and medical examiner concluded the death was accidental, and an autopsy was also conducted. "The investigative reports ... did not recommend any further action," he said in an e-mail. Those reports were turned over to state and local authorities, including the district attorney's office, he said.

Anderson's mother witnessed the shooting, the state police report said. Investigators waited 11 days to interview Anderson and her parents because of their "highly emotional state" following the shooting, according to the report.

In the December 17, 1986, interview, Anderson told authorities she "thought it would be a good idea if she learned how to load the shotgun in the house," according to the state police report. The young woman told police she was concerned for her own safety after the family home was broken into, although she previously had been afraid of the gun.

She said she got the gun and loaded shells into it, but was unable to get them out. Anderson said that while she was attempting to unload the weapon on her bed, it went off. She then took it downstairs to ask for help in unloading it. She asked her brother, she said, and he told her to point the gun up instead of carrying it beside her leg. Her brother was walking across the kitchen between her and her mother, she said. She started to raise the gun, and "someone said something to her," she recalled in the report. She turned and the gun went off.

"Amy thought that she had ruined the kitchen but was not aware of the fact that she had struck her brother," the report said. She fled, and told police she thought she had dropped the gun as she ran away. "She cannot recall anything else until she subsequently saw her mother at the police station," the report said.The report does not reference any other shots fired besides the one in Anderson's bedroom and the shot that struck her brother.
 
Anderson's father was not home at the time. He told police he had had a disagreement with his daughter "about a comment she had made" before he left to go shopping. He told police he had bought the shotgun about a year before the shooting, after the house had been broken into, and that he and his son belonged to a rifle club. Anderson was not trained to use the gun, he said.

Anderson's mother said that when her daughter came downstairs and asked for help in unloading the gun, she told her not to point it at anyone, and that her daughter turned and the gun went off. The woman told police she did not hear the shotgun fire earlier in her daughter's bedroom and "believed the house was relatively well soundproofed and that such a discharge would not necessarily be heard on another floor of the house."

Polio acknowledged that an argument had occurred during the shooting and said that the other shots, including one fired into the ceiling, did not appear aimed at anyone. He also recalled that Anderson had fled the scene. But, he said, he could not remember what he had told the newspaper in reference to the case or why details, including the argument, were not reported.

He said Anderson's mother had worked for the personnel board and at one point was assigned to the police department. But he rejected as "laughable" any suggestions that the suspect's mother might have influenced their handling of the case.

"There was no cover-up," Polio said. "Absolutely no cover-up and no missing records. The records were all there when I left. Where they went in the last 22 years and two police chiefs subsequent, I don't know."

Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan announced Sunday an effort to locate all materials associated with the shooting.

"The Braintree Police Department will conduct a thorough audit of all its records to identify if there were deficits in its past recordkeeping process," Sullivan said. "It is important to note that in 1986, police records were created and maintained manually, which complicates their review and retrieval."

The Braintree shooting resurfaced after Harvard-trained Anderson was charged in Friday's shooting in Alabama. Huntsville Police Chief Henry Reyes said Saturday that Anderson was attending a faculty meeting on the third floor of the sciences building Friday afternoon when she brandished a gun and shot six colleagues, killing three.

Anderson, a professor and researcher at the university and a mother of four, was arrested as she was leaving the building, Reyes told reporters Saturday. He said a 9 mm handgun was recovered from the second floor of the building late Friday.

Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard said officials were considering other charges, including attempted murder. Authorities have not ruled out the possibility of other suspects in connection to the shooting.

Anderson, who is known to students as Dr. Bishop, had been working at the university since 2003, and was up for tenure, according to spokesman Ray Garner. However, authorities wouldn't discuss possible motives or whether the issue of tenure may have played a role in the shooting.

Garner told CNN that the university gives teachers six years to get tenure. Those who do not get it are terminated, he said.

University President David Williams said a prayer service would be held on Sunday. He said the campus would open next week for employees, but that there would be no classes.

Reached at the couple's home, Jim Anderson told CNN that his wife has an attorney whom he would not identify. He described her as a good teacher.

Lots of local coverage here, including a video interview with Dr Cruz-Vera one of the surviving victims.

http://www.whnt.com/news/local/

And Alabama law does require it to be a capital offense if more than one person is killed.  She is facing the death penalty for sure as I don't think it is even optional but is a mandatory requirement of law.

BTW,  Dr Cruz Vera has gone home from the hospital which is the only good news so far.

Thank you for the updates, Anna.  My thoughts and prayers continue for the victims,  their family and friends.  Dr. Cruz Vera may have gone home, but I cannot fathom having sat at a table  where a co worker  fired a 9mm pistol until it jammed or emptied, injuring some and killing others.  I read the survivors blocked the doorway after the shooting, fearing she would come back and shoot some more.   ::MonkeyNoNo::  It's horrifying just  thinking about it.   ::MonkeyNoNo::

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hf_Cw1b1x1DmRrdG4hiu4P55yZTgD9DSP1L00
Relatives wonder how Ala. prof in slaying hired

By DESIREE HUNTER and KRISTIN M. HALL (AP) – 18 minutes ago

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Grieving relatives of three professors gunned down at a university faculty meeting questioned why their accused colleague was hired despite a dispute with a former boss who received a pipe bomb and the shooting death of her brother.

Amy Bishop is charged in the three deaths and the wounding of three other professors at a meeting Friday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She was vocal in her resentment over being denied tenure and the looming loss of her teaching post, though relatives and students said she had never suggested she might become violent.

The outbreak of violence was followed by weekend of revelations that Bishop had a difficult past that she did not discuss with her Alabama colleagues.
<snipped>

Today Show  02/15/10  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35408146#35408146

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/22568991/detail.html
Alleged Shooter's Husband Feels Bad, But 'Standing By' Wife
Woman Accused In Fatal Alabama Shootings

POSTED: 11:25 am EST February 15, 2010
UPDATED: 12:22 pm EST February 15, 2010



Video at link

The reason he was not also killed was that the bullet hit a chair before him.  Otherwise, who knows, he would likely also be dead.

If he is who I think he is, his wife is a physician and I know her and have met him.  But not sure about that and have not asked anybody locally.

This is just such a shock as that campus is normally the picture of tranquility.

Hey, where did my avatar go?

Nevermind--it's back.

Anyway, this is an article about the man she pulled a gun on and tried to steal the car from.  I think he may be on Sheperd Smith's program right now in a few minutes.


http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1232944


Quincy man recalls Amy Bishop holdup


How in the world did she get away with all this?  Her mother on the police personnel board is interesting.

It's not what you know even if you are a genius apparently but who you know.

Classes are cancelled for the whole week.  Tom Pettigrew on Shep Smith discussing the day Amy Bishop pulled the gun on him and tried to steal a car.  He thought she had a BB gun.  Ran into her and it was a shotgun instead.  She held it to his chest and said she got into a fight with her husband and she needed a car to get away from him because he was going to kill her.

Made him and his friend hold their hands up the whole time.  He and friend ran in opposite directions and he ran back in shop.  She left the property and the police arrived and surrounded her.  Uniformed officer came 45 minutes later and interviewed him but he never heard any thing more.  Saw in local paper that it was accidental shooting.  No trial and didn't hear any more all these years.

That's the interview just on Fox.

http://www.examiner.com/x-38158-Cultural-Oddities-Examiner~y2010m2d15-More-charges-for-Amy-Bishop-in-Alabama-university-deadly-shooting-spree
More charges for Amy Bishop in Alabama university shooting

February 15, 8:32 PM
In addition to the charge of capital murder, University of Alabama-Huntsville professor, Amy Bishop stands accused of attempted murder, police records showed Monday, Feb. 15.

Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, allegedly opened fire during a faculty meeting, killing three and wounding three other colleagues.

Although police in Huntsville have decline to discuss a motive in the shooting, reports say Bishop became angry about not receiving tenure at the university before firing shots from a concealed 9mm handgun. The incident occurred on the third floor of the the university's Shelby Center Friday, Feb 12.

Sammie Davis, husband of Maria Ragland Davis, said his wife described Bishop as "not able to deal with reality." Maria Ragland Davis died in the attack.

Chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, Gopi K. Podila and Adriel Johnson, were also killed. Josephy Leahy, Luis Cruz-Vera and Stephanie Monticello were injured.

Bishop could face the death penalty if convicted.

In 1986, Bishop discharged a 12 gauge shotgun, shooting her 18-year-old brother to death in their Boston-area home. Bishop was held briefly for questioning and released shortly after. The case was ruled an accident and its files have since been lost.  Bishop's mother allegedly witnessed the shooting.

In an earlier report, police in Boston also questioned Bishop and her husband, Jim Anderson, in a 1993 case involving a letter bomb sent to a Harvard professor. Although Bishop's house was searched after the letter was sent, no charges were filed. Anderson claims the couple has been cleared. The case remains open.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hf_Cw1b1x1DmRrdG4hiu4P55yZTgD9DSTEN00
Husband: Ala. prof went to range before shooting
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The husband of an Alabama college professor accused of shooting her colleagues says the couple went to a shooting range weeks before the killing but he didn't know where she got the gun.

James Anderson told The Associated Press Monday that he did not know how long Amy Bishop had a gun before Friday's attack. He says the family did not own a gun.

Bishop is accused of opening fire at a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, killing three and wounding three.

Anderson says she was acting like "a normal professor" in the days before the shooting.

He also says he and his wife were cleared in the investigation of a pipe bomb sent to one of her former bosses in Massachusetts in 1993.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Disclosures that an Alabama professor accused of fatally shooting three colleagues was twice questioned by criminal investigators years ago raised concerns Monday of why background checks didn't prevent her hiring at the school in 2003.

University of Alabama in Huntsville officials were meeting privately to review the files concerning Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist accused of pulling a gun at a Friday faculty meeting and shooting six people, three fatally. Two of the survivors remained in critical condition Monday.

Some victims' relatives questioned why UAH hired her in the first place after the disclosures about her involvement in the two criminal probes. She wasn't charged with a crime in either.

An expert on background checks who's not involved in the case says the lack of charges made it less likely either case would have shown up when prospective employers looked into her past.

Professors who witnessed the shooting said Bishop had been "unusually quiet" during the meeting before pulling out a gun and firing, said professor Leland Cseke (CHEK'-ee). He joined them and other biology department colleagues at a gathering Sunday to mourn the dead and wounded.

While investigators have not commented on a motive, family members of victims said they understood Bishop was angry about the university's decision to deny her tenure, forcing her to look for work elsewhere after this semester.

In a case that Huntsville colleagues weren't aware of, Bishop in 1986 shot and killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, Mass., home. She told police she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged.

Authorities termed the episode an accident and released her, but current Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier has questioned how the investigation was handled.

On Sunday The Boston Globe reported that Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned by investigators after a package containing two pipe bombs was sent to one of Bishop's colleagues, Dr. Paul Rosenberg, at Children's Hospital Boston in 1993. Police were alerted and the bomb did not go off. No one was charged.

Huntsville police spokesman Sgt. Mark Roberts said both cases were news to them.

"We found out about both events after the fact," he told The Associated Press.

He said police were checking with law enforcement to confirm details of the pipe bomb probe.

Bishop's father-in-law, Jim Anderson, told The Associated Press that his son and daughter-in-law "were cleared when the evidence proved they had nothing to do with it."

He said ATF conducted the investigation. "They focused on the wrong persons and let the bad guy(s) flee," he said in an e-mail.

Sylvia Fluckiger, a lab technician who worked with Bishop at the time, said Bishop had been in a dispute with Rosenberg shortly before the bombs were discovered, though she didn't know the nature of the disagreement.

"It was common knowledge," she told the AP Sunday.

It was not clear Monday if UAH spoke with Rosenberg when it hired Bishop, an associate professor whose research led to an innovative cell incubator now being developed for market by a private company, Prodigy Biosystems, that employs her husband.

Sammie Lee Davis, whose wife, Maria Ragland Davis, was killed in the shooting, expressed concern that UAH hired someone with a past like Bishop's.

"This is all new to us," he said of her past.

The slain professor's two stepdaughters said they were shocked that Bishop was hired.

"I think they need to do a little more investigation when coming down to hiring teachers and things like that. Maybe looking a little deeper into their past about certain things. This is a lot coming out ... It's a shocker," said Melissa Davis on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Jason Morris, president of EmployeeScreenIQ, a Cleveland, Ohio, company that does background checks for colleges and other large institutions, said it's possible a background check would not have turned up the incidents in Bishop's past, particularly since she wasn't charged.

Part of the problem is that college professors often come to campus with very lofty credentials, like Bishop's degree from Harvard University, Morris said.

"Sometimes they overlook certain characteristics because they've got this great person coming to campus," Morris said.

"It's not a silver bullet," he said of background checks, but a check of weapons records "might have uncovered something."

Police previously said Bishop had no permit for the gun believe used in the shooting, and investigators said they didn't know where she got it. The gun was found in a second-floor restroom, one floor below where the shooting occurred.

Bishop's husband told the Chronicle of Higher Education on Monday that her wife had recently borrowed a handgun and had practiced with it at an indoor gun range. He said she wouldn't tell him who she borrowed it from and was 'very cagey.'

He said she had been worried about "crazy students" since someone had followed her across campus last summer. But he said he warned his wife not to bring the gun to work.

Bishop is charged with one count of capital murder, which can lead to a death sentence in Alabama if convicted, and three counts of attempted murder.

Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Davis. Two of the wounded — professor Joseph Leahy and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo — were in critical condition Monday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, had been released from the hospital.

Associated Press Writer Bob Johnson in Montgomery and Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/ipswich_neighbo.html
Ipswich neighbors recall confrontations with Amy Bishop
February 15, 2010 06:59 PM
By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Staff

IPSWICH -- On Birch Lane, a family neighborhood where there are almost as many curbside basketball hoops as mailboxes, Amy Bishop, her husband, and their four children did not seem to fit in, former neighbors said today.

Bishop, who now stands accused of gunning down three professors at the University of Alabama Huntsville, and her husband, James Anderson, were not always considered friendly neighbors and sometimes had arguments with other families. At least once, Bishop hinted that an ongoing confrontation with neighbors could become violent.

The accounts of longtime neighborhood residents, combined with a stack of police reports provided to the Globe by the Ipswich Police Department, paint a picture of conflict between the Bishop/Anderson family and others in town.
Bishop, who was referred to as Amy Anderson at the time, called 911 regularly during her short time living in this North Shore community. She reported several neighborhood kids to the police for "disturbing the peace" by riding their dirt bikes and motorized scooters in the neighborhood after school. Police repeatedly informed her and her husband that kids are allowed to ride their bikes and scooters during the afternoon hours, especially on their own property.

Bishop called police at least five times about neighborhood children making noise after they got home from school. On July 3, 2001, she complained that the noise from motorized scooters and motor bikes was bothering her. On April 12, 2002, she complained that children were riding dirt bikes in the woods around the neighborhood. On April 27, 2003, she called police again about kids riding bikes in the neighborhood.

On June 25, 2000, during another complaint about kids making noise, Bishop reportedly told police that her dispute with one of the children's parents may "come to blows."

Joey Lafoe, now 18 and a senior at Ipswich High School, was the target of Bishop's police reports several times for riding around on his dirt bike and motorized scooter.

"They used to videotape us driving our dirt bikes, and they used to call the cops on us saying that our dirt bikes kept them up -- at 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon," Lafoe said. "The cops said we could go until 8 o'clock."

He summed the family up in one word:

"Strange," Lafoe said.

Ipswich Police Officer Michael Thomas remembers responding to several 911 calls at the Anderson/Bishop house, calling the family "regular customers."

"I do remember them. Some of their complaints were legitimate, but it just gets to a point there was never enough we could do for them."

Thomas said that the family would get angry with police, especially when they said they were told that police couldn't put a stop to kids playing basketball or riding dirt bikes in the neighborhood because it wasn't illegal.

Bishop once stopped a local ice cream truck from coming into their neighborhood. According to WBZ-1030 radio, she said it because her own kids were lactose intolerant, and she didn't think it was fair that her kids couldn't have ice cream. 

"That's who it was!" Lafoe said. "When we were younger the ice cream truck just stopped coming around. That's strange."

On February 17, 2002, a police report indicates that Bishop called 911 several times and hung up on the dispatcher. No further information was available on that day's incident.

On April 11, 1999, James Anderson called police to report that the couple's daughters, Phaeder and Thea, were missing. He said that the girls were at a friend's house and were supposed to call before they left. Police arrived, and another neighborhood parent quickly came outside and said the girls and other children were over at his house.

But the children were largely kept isolated from the other neighborhood kids.

Lafoe and several others said that it was common knowledge in the neighborhood that the kids weren't allowed to play with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.

Some neighbors, like Ethel Farmer, who's lived in the neighborhood for 37 years, never knew the Bishop/Anderson family at all because they largely kept to themselves, neighbors said. Farmer said one of the only things she knew about the family was that the kids weren't allowed to play with other kids in the neighborhood.

"I never met them. I never knew their names. I've been here 37 years and never met them. I just found out that they were my neighbors from another neighbor," Farmer said. "I know who Amy Bishop is because of the news, but not because she was a neighbor."

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com

http://www.necn.com/02/15/10/Broadside-Police-and-Amy-Bishop/landing.html?blockID=180829&feedID=4215
Broadside: Police and Amy Bishop
(Video Available at Link)
(NECN) - Attorney Wendy Murphy is challenging the police handling of Amy Bishop, the Alabama shooting rampage suspect with a troubled history in Massachusetts.

Bishop is charged in three deaths, and the wounding of three other professors at a meeting Friday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.


In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother in their Braintree, Massachusetts home. That death was ruled accidental. Wendy questions the State Police report which did not include a motive, and omitted Bishop's actions after the fatal shooting.

In 1993 Bishop was questioned after a pipe bomb was delivered to one her colleagues at Children's Hospital. Nobody was ever charged. Wendy says the university could have investigated her past more thoroughly.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1232943&srvc=home&position=emailed
Oddball’ portrait of Amy Bishop emerges
Suspect’s family, pals offer clues

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-president-uahuntsville-interview-021510,0,4394646.story
UAHuntsville President Addresses Tenure Questions

Rikki Klaus Videojournalist

February 15, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL - Not getting tenure at UAHuntsville means you're fired.

University President David Williams said the tenure process is long and involved. He said the decision to deny tenure goes from the department chair, to the dean, to the provost, who ultimately makes the decision. Throughout the process, various committees weigh in. He said teaching and research are a couple of considerations.

When accused shooter and UAHuntsville Professor Amy Bishop found out the University denied her tenure back in March, she appealed it.

"I get involved in that because I then look at the process, not the content of the tenure documents, but was the process followed appropriately by university standards," Williams said.

Williams would not say specifically why University officials denied Bishop tenure.

He decided it was followed correctly. In November, he denied Bishop's appeal.

Williams said most professors who are denied tenure leave within twelve months ... Bishop was just a month from that point when the shooting happened.

Williams said the faculty meeting, where the shooting took place Friday, had nothing to do with Bishop's tenure. The meeting was routine, he said.

Williams said professors from University of Alabama at Birmingham, local community colleges and the University of North Alabama have all offered to teach the remainder of the semester at UAHuntsville.

Interesting comments...

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/What-Motivated-Amy-Bishop-2531
What Motivated Amy Bishop?

http://www.cbs42.com/content/localnews/story/Did-Bishop-Fall-Through-The-Cracks/xUt9IZJuPUGX6MmMN4hAKw.cspx
Did Bishop Fall Through The Cracks?
There are many questions as to whether a background test could indicate such a violent outburst as what happened at UAH.

Amy Bishop's words as she's taken into police custody friday night following the shootings of six UAH professors. This tragedy isn't Bishop's first run-in with the law. We've learned that Bishop shot her 18 year old brother in 1986. In 1993, she was a suspect in an attempted mail bombing of a Harvard University professor. So, did Amy Bishop fall through the cracks?

Jon Blankenship is a local psychologist who's practice conducts psych tests for employers. He says they're looking for normal behavior.

"You could sit down and take a test and you could represent yourself as another person. The chances are that the results would come back strange and inconsistent," Blankenship says.

Inconsistency is one red flag that may lead to a background check.

"Some kind of issue comes up that we feel needs to be investigated and we might recommend a more thorough investigation."

Blankenship says everyone reacts differently to high stress situations, which is why each case is different.

"None of us really know exactly how we're going to react to a really surprisingly stressful situation until you're in the situation."

http://www.wickedlocal.com/mansfield/archive/x228087669/From-the-Archives-Sister-kills-teenager-in-shotgun-accident

From the Archives: ‘Sister kills teenager in shotgun accident’


By Jim Kelly
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 14, 2010 @ 04:18 PM
Last update Feb 14, 2010 @ 06:30 PM
BRAINTREE —


   This story appeared on page 1 of the Patriot Ledger on Dec. 8, 1986.

Sister kills teenager in shotgun accident at home

BRAINTREE – An 18-year-old who won prizes in science and music was killed when his sister accidentally fired a shotgun she was trying to unload in the kitchen of their Braintree home Saturday afternoon.

Seth M. Bishop, a freshman at Northeastern University in Boston, was shot in his home at 46 Hollis Ave., at about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, police said.

Police said his sister, Amy Bishop, was trying to unload the pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun when it discharged.

The fatal shooting was witnessed by Bishop’s mother, Judith, according to authorities.

The shotgun was registered to Bishop’s father, Samuel S. Bishop, a professor at Northeastern University.

According to investigators, Amy Bishop had been taught how to use the shotgun by her father. On the day of the accident, she was handling the loaded weapon in the home, although investigators said it was not clear why.

She pumped a round from the magazine into the firing chamber of the shotgun, then went into the kitchen and asked her brother and mother for help when she couldn’t eject the shell from the chamber, investigators said.

Her mother instructed Amy Bishop to pump the shotgun again, which ejected the first shell, according to an investigator. However, she apparently pumped the weapon again and unknowingly advanced a second shell from the magazine to the chamber.

Thinking the weapon was empty, she pulled the trigger, the investigator said. The blast struck her brother, who was standing three to four feet in front of her, authorities said.

Dr. William P. Ridder, an associate Norfolk County medical examiner, said Bishop was shot once in the lower right chest with bird-shot. He said Bishop showed faint signs of life when ambulance attendants arrived at the home, but attempts at reviving him were not successful.   Bish was pronounced dead at 3:08 p.m. at Quincy City Hospital.

The accident is under investigation by Braintree police and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, but authorities said they don’t expect charges to be filed

Bishop graduated from Braintree High School this spring near the top of his class. He was a freshan at Northeastern University, studying electrical engineering.

Teachers say he was an accomplished violinist. He began studying music in elementary school and developed a broad repertoire. He was a member of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Braintree High School Orchestra and other student orchestras.

He received fine arts awards from state groups and the high school, including the Arian Award for Music. He won the Science Fair at the high school, second prize in the district science fair and third prize in the state science fair at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

"He had great potential and he was interested in all aspects of science," said Paul Hogan, head of the high school sciences department. "I know he would have been very successful in whatever he chose to do."

Teachers recalled Bishop as a shy but friendly student who enjoyed school but kept to a small circle of friends who shared his interests in music and science.

"He was extremely gifted, so intelligent that I think many other students didn't understand him," said Dr. Katherine Dewey, head of the music department at the high school. "He was one of those genius kids who marched to the beat of his own drum.

"Once kids got to know him, they accepted him. They sort of looked after Seth, had him take part in whatever they were doing."

Dewey said Amy Bishop, who graduated from the high school two years ago, was also a talented violing who had gone on to study at Northeastern.

"They were very much alike, shy and pretty much out of the mainstream," she said.


 
   This story appeared the next day, also starting on page 1:

Gun fired moments before teen’s death

BRAINTREE – The shotgun that accidentally killed an 18-year-old college student in the kitchen of his Braintree home Saturday had gone off moments before in an upstairs bedroom.

After she accidentally discharged the gun into her bedroom wall, the victim’s sister, Amy, carried the weapon downstairs and asked for help unloading it. It was then that the shotgun discharged a second time, fatally wounding Seth M. Bishop, police said.

“It all happened in a split-second in front of me,” Judith Bishop, their mother, said this morning. “I keep seeing it over and over in my mind.”

Mrs. Bishop said Amy was trying to teach herself how to use the 12-gauge shotgun in case burglars broke into the house.

The family purchased the gun after their Hollis Avenue home was burglarized a year ago, Mrs. Bishop said.

When the shotgun went off in her bedroom, Amy Bishop, 20, became frightened and “highly emotional” and went downstairs to her mother and brother to find out how to unload it, Braintree Police Capt. Theodore Buker said.

“She came downstairs to the kitchen seeking help on how to unload it,” Buker said. “Her mother said something like, ‘Be careful where you point that’ and as she turned around (toward her brother) the gun discharged.” 

Seth Bishop, a 1986 Braintree High School graduate and an award-winning violinist, was struck in the lower chest by the shotgun blast.

His funeral was today at All Souls Church in Braintree and he was to be buried later today in Exeter, N.H. He was a student of electrical engineering at Northeastern University in Boston.

Mrs. Bishop said last year's burglary was followed by an attempted housebreak just before Thanksgiving. Buker confirmed those incidents.

"I think she (Amy) thought she should know how to use it in case she was home alone," Mrs. Bishop said. "She didn't know anything about it."

Buker said after the gun went off in her bedroom, Amy Bishop apparently pumped a second shell into the firing chamber, then went downstairs seeking help. He said she probably did not know she had advanced a second shell into the chamber.

"It is not an automatic weapon, so in order for the shell to be advanced, it would have to be pumped," Buker said. "It isn't particularly hard to do."

Buker's comments clarified a report in yesterday's Patriot Ledger which said Amy Bishop tried to unload the shotgun by pumping it and had ejected a shell, but inadvertently loaded a second shell into the firing chamber and pulled the trigger.

Both Buker and Mrs. Bishop said Amy Bishop did not try to unload the weapon because she did not understand how it worked.

After the incident, Amy Bishop ran from the house with the weapon. Police officers found her a short time later near Braintree Square in a "highly emotional state."

Samuel S. Bishop, the father of Amy and Seth, was not at home at the time of the accident, Buker said.


 
 
 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/quincy_man_reca.html
Quincy man recalls Amy Bishop with gun

February 15, 2010 05:50 PM
Shortly after fatally shooting her brother in 1986, Amy Bishop held two men at gunpoint and demanded a getaway car at an auto repair shop near her family's Braintree home, according to one of the men involved.

Carrying a shotgun by her side, a 21-year-old Bishop walked intently across a car lot into the adjacent storefront, where she began searching for car keys. Coming down from the second floor, she was heading toward the garage when she ran into Tom Pettigrew and a friend, who had spotted her in the parking lot and came to investigate.

"Her gun hit me in the chest," Pettigrew, 45, recalled from his Quincy apartment. "I yelled, 'What are you doing?' and she screamed at me to put my hands up. So I put my hands up."

On Friday, Bishop, a biology professor at the University of Alabama, allegedly opened fire at a faculty meeting, killing three colleagues and wounding three others. Investigators soon discovered that Bishop had killed her younger brother in 1986 with a shotgun, a shooting that was ruled accidental.

But the Braintree police chief has cast doubt on that conclusion, and the armed confrontation at the garage provides new insight into her state of mind after her brother's death. The Boston Herald first reported Pettigrew's account of the events today.

Only minutes after that shooting, according to Pettigrew, Bishop frantically told workers at the garage she had been in an argument with her husband and needed a car to escape, nervously scanning the premises as she kept the gun pointed at their backs.

"She kept saying 'I need a car, I need to get out of here,'" Pettigrew recalled. "She said he would be looking for her, and that if he found her he would kill her. She seemed terrified."

Investigators said there were only three people in the Bishop home at the time of the shooting - Bishop, her mother, and her brother. Her father had left to go shopping after he and Bishop had a disagreement. In her statement to detectives, Bishop said she raced out the door after the shooting and believed she had dropped the gun behind her. She said she could not recall anything else that happened until she saw her mother at the police station after being taken into custody.

Pettigrew said he tried to defuse the situation by calmly asking her what was wrong, but she did not seem to hear him.

"At the time, I remember thinking she was out of her mind," said Pettigrew, who was stunned when he learned that the thin, mousy teenager who once held him at gunpoint had been charged in the Alabama rampage.

At times, Bishop held the gun loosely, and did not appear to be familiar with firearms, said Pettigrew, an experienced hunter. So he and his friend, moving on eye contact, fled in opposite directions. Bishop did not fire at them.

"She just looked around agitated," he said. "She didn't know what to do."

Seconds later, police surrounded the area, and quickly seized her, he said.

Later, Braintree police briefly questioned Pettigrew and several other employees, and authorities never contacted Pettigrew again. He read in the paper the family shooting had been ruled an accident, and that Bishop was not charged with a crime.

Now, after the deaths in Alabama, Pettigrew wonders why authorities didn't follow up more aggressively, and wonders whether things could have turned out differently if they had.

"It was almost like they wanted to put it on the shelf and forget about it," he said. "I think if that happened to me I'd be wrapping up a long prison sentence. But with this, it seems like they just wanted it to go away."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/22571652/detail.html
Local Man: Accused Rampage Shooter Held Me At Gunpoint
Bishop Demanded Car After 1986 Shooting

(Video Available at Link)
POSTED: 3:45 pm EST February 15, 2010
UPDATED: 6:54 pm EST February 15, 2010
BOSTON --
Days after a former Massachusetts woman allegedly went on a deadly shooting rampage in Alabama, a local mechanic said the same woman pointed a gun at him and demanded a car after she shot and killed her brother nearly 25 years ago.

Amy Bishop, now 42, a biology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is accused of fatally shooting three colleagues and injuring three others at a faculty meeting on Friday.

Tom Pettigrew, 45, of Quincy, said he was a mechanic at Dave Dinger Ford on a Saturday afternoon in 1986 when he and a coworker saw a woman, later identified as Bishop, with a shotgun enter the shop.

When Pettigrew went to investigate, he said he soon found himself face-to-face with Bishop, 19, with a gun pressed to his chest.

"She was like, 'Hands up!' So, of course, right away, we both put our hands up. And she was like, 'I need a car,'" he said.

Pettigrew said Bishop claimed she had been in a fight with her husband, feared for her life and needed a getaway car. Pettigrew and his coworker told Bishop that the cars in the shop were new and locked, and that his car was up on a lift with its wheels off.

Still gripping the shotgun, a nervous and agitated Bishop walked through the dealer's inventory looking for an unlocked car, Pettigrew recalled.

A few minutes later, police arrived at the lot and Bishop was arrested.

Pettigrew said he later learned that Bishop had shot and killed her 18-year-old brother, Seth, earlier that day.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier said Bishop was detained after her brother's death on Dec. 6, 1986, but was released without being charged when the shooting was ruled accidental.

Bishop was never booked and all local police records of the case have disappeared, with the exception of an entry in a police log noting an accidental shooting, Frazier said.

Frazier said that he planned to meet with the local district attorney over the possibility of launching a criminal investigation into how the Bishop case was handled.

In 1993, Bishop was questioned in connection with a failed bomb plot at the Newton home of a Harvard University professor.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/ipswich/news/x196134740/Friend-calls-triple-murder-charges-surprising-and-tragic

Amy Bishop's friend calls triple murder charges ‘surprising and tragic’
(Photos in article)
 By Dan Mac Alpine
Ipswich Chronicle
Posted Feb 15, 2010 @ 05:29 PM
Last update Feb 15, 2010 @ 06:35 PM
Ipswich —

Amy Bishop gave only glimpses of a violent past and flashes of triple murder charges lying in her future, said a longtime friend who met Bishop in local writer’s group 11 years ago.
ane from 1999 to 2003.

“The Amy I knew was impulsive, very sweet, very funny and very helpful,” said Hamilton resident Rob Dinsmoor, a freelance science writer and editor. “I’m also learning a lot more about her. Things she never disclosed.”

Bishop, who has a doctorate with a specialty in molecular biology, is charged in the shooting deaths of three fellow professors at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Ala., over the weekend.

Dinsmoor said Bishop may have been upset at the prospect of not receiving tenure at the university.

Further investigation has connected Bishop to the 1986 shooting death of her brother, 18, in 1986 and a failed letter-bomb incident at Harvard University in 1993 when she was a doctoral candidate there.

Bishop, whose parents still live in Ipswich, but aren’t talking to the media, was never charged in either incident.

During the years in which he knew the 45-year-old assistant professor, Dinsmoor said Bishop wrote three novels and multiple short stories.

One novel was about growing up in Belfast during Northern Ireland’s civil war; a second was about a female CIA operative; and the third was a science-fiction novel in which Bishop used her science expertise.

“She was always very good at writing about violence,” said Dinsmoor.

At the same time she was pumping out novels and short stories, Bishop was conducting research into nerve-cell regeneration and into a computer built with living cells.

She had just started a fledgling company to further pursue her research and develop marketable products.

Dinsmoor also describes a woman who was willful and opinionated: “When she thought she was right, she wouldn’t back down.”

For all her imagination and brilliance, Bishop appears to have had trouble getting along with her Birch Lane neighbors, now hunkered down and hiding from the press camped out on their street.

In earlier interviews, before the media’s full-court press, neighbors had little nice to say about Bishop, and it appears Bishop had little nice to say about them when she lived in Ipswich.

“I got the impression it was an insular neighborhood,” said Dinsmoor. “She was always complaining about loudness and unruly kids. I got the idea from her they kind of ganged up on her. I got the sense she found them difficult to reason with.”

Ipswich Police report six incidents in which Bishop called them.

Five of the calls involved noise, mostly concerning neighborhood kids operating dirt bikes in their own yards.

One call involved a report of her children not coming home on time.

Despite violence erupting in her past, Bishop was never charged with a crime.

Braintree Police ruled Bishop’s brother’s death an accident, but a missing police report on the death has police in the town questioning the department’s handling of the investigation.

 A police investigation into the letter bomb resulted in no charges.

Dinsmoor met Bishop in 1999 through the writer’s group and kept up a friendship with her and her family, husband James Anderson and their four children — three daughters and one son — ranging in age from preteen to 18.

 “They are very nice, very fun kids. That’s what makes this all the more unsettling. I already sent a card to the family,” said Dinsmoor, who last contacted Bishop two weeks ago when she said she was upset about the prospect of not receiving tenure at the university.

“I think that was the main thing,” said Dinsmoor. “Not getting tenure at the University of Alabama was very big. She left for Alabama for the chance at a tenured position. There were also financial issues.”

However, Bishop’s research into the regeneration of damaged nerve cells and into a “living computer” had spawned a fledgling company backed by investors.

The company would likely have eased financial concerns and allowed her to continue her research, Dinsmoor said.

Bishop’s university Web page indicates she was researching the use of nitric oxide as a way jumpstart damaged nerve cells in the spinal cord, and also researching the use of neurons in computer construction.

“My laboratory’s goal will be to continue in our effort to develop a neural computer, the Neuristor, using living neurons,” writes Bishop on her Web page, which records she published three papers on her work in professional journals in 2009.

“She had a startup company she had investors in,” said Dinsmoor. “So she had a promising avenue that way. That’s why this is so surprising and tragic.”

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_re_us/us_ala_university_shooting

Survivor: Ala. university shooter fired suddenly
(Video Available)
  By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer   
February 16, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A survivor of an Alabama university shooting said the professor charged in the attack that claimed three lives methodically shot the victims in the head until her gun apparently jammed and she was pushed out of the room.

Associate professor Joseph Ng told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was one of 12 people at the biology department meeting Friday at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. He described the details in an e-mail to a colleague at the University of California-Irvine.

Ng said the meeting had been going on for about half an hour when Amy Bishop "got up suddenly, took out a gun and started shooting at each one of us. She started with the one closest to her and went down the row shooting her targets in the head."

Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, was arrested and charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder.

Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Two were wounded — professor Joseph Leahy remained in critical condition and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo was in serious condition Tuesday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, was released from the hospital.

Ng said the meeting was held around an oval table. The six people on one side were all shot.

"The remaining 5 including myself were on the other side of the table (and) immediately dropped to the floor," he wrote.

Ng told the AP the shooting stopped almost as soon as it started. Ng said the gun seemed to jam and he and others rushed Bishop out of the room and then barricaded the door shut with a table.

Ng said the charge was led by Debra Moriarity, a professor of biochemistry, after Bishop aimed the gun at her and attempted to fire but it didn't shoot. He said Moriarity pushed her way to Bishop, urged her to stop, and then helped force her out the door.

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

Ng said the survivors worried she would shoot her way through the door, and frantically worked up backup plan in case she burst through. But she never did.

"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."

Investigators haven't commented on a possible motive, but Bishop was vocal among colleagues about her displeasure over being denied tenure by the university, forcing her to look for work elsewhere after this semester.

Some victims' relatives have also questioned how Bishop was hired at the university in 2003 after she was involved years ago in separate criminal probes. University of Alabama officials were meeting privately to review the files concerning her hiring.

In 1986, Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, Mass., home. She told police at the time that she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged.

Authorities released her and said the episode was a tragic accident. She was never charged, though current Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier questions how the investigation was handled. Frazier said she also fired once into a wall before hitting her brother, then fired a third time into the ceiling.

Her husband said Monday he had known about her brother being shot, but said "it was an accident. That's all I knew about it."

In another incident, The Boston Globe reported that Bishop and her husband were questioned by investigators looking into a pipe bomb sent to one of Bishop's colleagues, Dr. Paul Rosenberg, at Children's Hospital Boston in 1993. The bomb did not go off, and nobody was ever charged.

Anderson defended himself and his wife as innocent people questioned by investigators casting a wide net. He said the case "had a dozen people swept up in this and everybody was a subject, not a suspect."

"There was never any indictment, arrest, nothing, and then everyone was cleared after five years," he said.

Huntsville police spokesman Sgt. Mark Roberts said his department didn't find out about either of the older cases until after the shooting on campus. He said police were checking to confirm details of the pipe bomb probe.

Anderson said his wife had practiced at a shooting range not long before the shooting. Anderson said she acted normally while they were at the range and none of her behavior in recent days foreshadowed Friday's rampage.

"She was just a normal professor," he told The Associated Press during an interview at his home Monday.

Anderson said his wife didn't reveal why she took an interest in guns. He knew she had a gun, but didn't know when or where she got the weapon.

"I really don't know how she got it, or where she got it from," he said.

Police have said Bishop had no permit for the gun they believe she used in the campus shooting, and investigators said they didn't know where she got it. It's unclear if it was the same gun that her husband knew about.

MuffyBee,

Thank you for all the news of the day on this tragedy.  I haven't seen or heard anything more than what you have posted so I think you have it all covered.

I do note with particular sadness that Amy Bishop is the mother of four children of her own, the youngest just 8 yeras old. 

Drudge has a link to the article on her "oddball behavior" and is calling her a "far left extremist" but notice how the opinions do vary.  Some describe her as being perfectly normal, pleasant, helpful and friendly while others just the opposite.

And note, too, that failure to get tenure means basically that the person is fired.  Did not realize that part before so this was the equivalent of her being fired.

Evidently, abundant amounts of education is no safe-guard against a violent eruption.  She will face a mandatory death penalty.  I expect an insanity defense because at this point in time, can't think of anything else she could plead.

Insanity defenses are not often successful in Alabama as the requirements are hard to meet.  I am thinking of the case of Judith Neeley who also used that defense with no success.

Obviously, a review of hiring practices is in order for the University.  Perhaps for all universities because I don't think any of them do more than the extensive background check that was conducted on this woman but it failed to turn up her past brushes with law enforcement because no charges were ever filed.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/16/ex_ada_no_reason_to_question_bishop_police_probe

The Associated Press
Ex-ADA: No reason to question Bishop police probe
February 16, 2010
BOSTON—The former assistant district attorney who reviewed the Massachusetts police investigation into the 1986 shooting of Seth Bishop by his sister, Amy Bishop, said there was nothing time to indicate the death was anything but accidental.
John Kivlan said Tuesday that a joint investigation by state and local police as well as the medical examiner's office all came to the conclusion that Seth Bishop's death was an accident.

His sister, Amy, is accused of fatally shooting three colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Friday and injuring three others.

Kivlan, who is now retired from the Norfolk District Attorney's office, said he was not aware of reports that Amy Bishop went to a nearby auto body shop after the shooting and demanded a car. He said that may or may not have changed his assessment of the case.

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11993548
Witness to UA Huntsville shooting recounts events in email
Posted: Feb 16, 2010 2:52 PM CST Updated: Feb 16, 2010 2:57 PM CST
Posted by Dana Franks - email

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - An assistant biology professor who was at a meeting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville where a professor allegedly opened fire Friday recounted his experience in an email to a colleague.

According to a report in The Orange County Register, Joseph Ng, who had attended the University of California at Irvine before taking a job at UA Huntsville, sent an email to a former graduate school professor describing the shooting.

"I'm still in complete shock that we were shot at during a faculty meeting," Ng said in the email.

According to Ng's recounting of events, 12 professors and staff members were gathered in a conference room when Amy Bishop-Anderson allegedly stood up about 30 minutes into the meeting, took out a gun and methodically started shooting people at the meeting.

"Six people sitting in the rows perpendicular were all shot fatally or seriously wounded," Ng wrote. "The remaining [five] including myself were on the other side of the table immediately dropped to the floor.
Ng wrote that the people who weren't wounded in the shooting tackled Bishop-Anderson as she attempted to reload her gun, pushed her out into the hallway and barricaded the door. He said campus and local police, ambulances and a SWAT team arrived about five minutes after the shooting began.

"We were in a pool of blood in disbelief of what had happened," he said.

Ng said the five people in the room who remained mostly unhurt spent the weekend at Huntsville Hospital looking after the three who were wounded in the attack, as well as the families of the three professors who were killed.

"It is hard to have this image out of my mind and I have mixed feelings of guilt and relief that I am alive or unharmed," Ng wrote.

Bishop-Anderson has been charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hf_Cw1b1x1D
mRrdG4hiu4P55yZTgD9DTG0K80
Survivor: Ala. prof in slayings shot methodically

By GREG BLUESTEIN (AP) – 37 minutes ago

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A professor who survived a deadly university shooting rampage said the colleague charged in the attack methodically shot her victims in the head until the gun apparently jammed and she was pushed out of the room.

Associate professor Joseph Ng told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was one of 12 people at a biology department meeting Friday at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. He described the details in an e-mail to a colleague at the University of California-Irvine.

Ng said the meeting had been going on for about half an hour when Amy Bishop "got up suddenly, took out a gun and started shooting at each one of us. She started with the one closest to her and went down the row shooting her targets in the head."

Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, was arrested and charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder.

It's not the first time Bishop has been accused in a killing. In 1986, she killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their suburban Boston home. She told police she had been trying to learn how to use the gun, which her father had bought for protection, when it accidentally discharged.

The killing was ruled an accident, but John Polio, who headed the Braintree, Mass., police department at the time, now has questions about the investigation.
Polio, 87, at first defended the handling of the case. But he said Tuesday he has "myriad" concerns about a report on it, which he saw for the first time over the weekend.

Polio said the district attorney's office was not obligated to provide him with the reports, but as a common courtesy, he usually received them. He did not in Bishop's case.

"When I first read them, from a police standpoint and a professional standpoint, I would have wanted a lot more questions answered," he said.

He said there were no ballistics tests included, and he also thought it odd that there was an 11-day gap between the death and interviews with family members, apparently because they were too distraught to talk sooner.

The Norfolk County district attorney at the time was William Delahunt, now a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. He was traveling in Israel and could not immediately be reached for comment on the case.

John Kivlan, the former assistant district attorney who reviewed the case, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that there was nothing then to indicate Seth Bishop's death was anything but an accident. He said a joint investigation by state and local police as well as the medical examiner's office all came to that conclusion.

But current Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier questions how the investigation was handled. Frazier said Amy Bishop also fired once into a wall before hitting her brother, then fired a third time into the ceiling.

An auto mechanic who worked at a dealership near Bishop's home in 1986 told the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe that Bishop ran in after shooting her brother, waved a gun and demanded a getaway car.
Tom Pettigrew, 45, recalled that Bishop said she had had a fight with her husband and he was going to come after her, so she needed to flee. Pettigrew said Braintree police briefly questioned him and several other employees, but authorities never contacted him again.

Kivlan, who is now retired and living in Sarasota, Fla., said he did not recall that element of the case.

Some victims' relatives have questioned how Bishop was hired at the university in 2003 after she was involved in her brother's killing and another, separate probe.

In 1993, Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned by investigators looking into a pipe bomb sent to one of Bishop's colleagues, Dr. Paul Rosenberg, at Children's Hospital Boston. The bomb did not go off, and nobody was ever charged.

Anderson defended himself and his wife as innocent people questioned by investigators casting a wide net. He said the case "had a dozen people swept up in this and everybody was a subject, not a suspect."

"There was never any indictment, arrest, nothing, and then everyone was cleared after five years," he said.

University President David Williams said Tuesday that a review of Bishop's personnel file and her hiring file raised no red flags. He said a criminal background check after Friday's deadly shooting turned up neither of the previous cases because charges were never filed.

Huntsville police spokesman Sgt. Mark Roberts also said his department didn't find out about either of the older cases until after the shooting on campus. He said police were checking to confirm details of the pipe bomb probe.
Killed in Friday's shooting were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Two were wounded — professor Joseph Leahy remained in critical condition and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo was in serious condition Tuesday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, was released from the hospital.

Ng, the professor who survived, said all six of those shot were on one side of an oval table.

"The remaining 5 including myself were on the other side of the table (and) immediately dropped to the floor," he wrote.

Ng told the AP the shooting stopped almost as soon as it started. He said the gun seemed to jam and he and others rushed Bishop out of the room and then barricaded the door shut with a table.

Ng said the charge was led by Debra Moriarity, a professor of biochemistry, after Bishop aimed the gun at her and attempted to fire. When the gun didn't shoot, Moriarity pushed her way to Bishop, urged her to stop, and then helped force her out the door.

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

Ng said the survivors worried she would shoot her way through the door, and frantically worked up a backup plan in case she burst through. But she never did.
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."

Anderson said his wife had practiced at a shooting range not long before the shooting. Anderson said she acted normally while they were at the range and none of her behavior in recent days foreshadowed Friday's rampage.

"She was just a normal professor," he told The Associated Press during an interview at his home Monday.

Madison County District Attorney Robert Broussard said Bishop was arraigned in jail Monday but no court date has been set. He also said no decision has been made on whether to ask for the death penalty if she is convicted. She is on suicide watch, which is routine in such cases.

Associated Press Writers Jay Reeves in Huntsville, Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Mark Pratt in Boston and Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

Anna- I've been trying to go through and post all the news I can find before some become unavailable.  My past experience has been that sometimes if you click a link, the article is no longer available, or you have to pay $2.95 to view it and etc. at a later date.  I appreciate your input, opinions, articles and etc. 

I too saw that Amy Bishop has 4 children.  That's sad for them.   ::MonkeyNoNo::  Did you see the article in which it's alleged Amy Bishop managed to have the ice cream truck route removed from their neighborhood because her children were lactose intolerant and it wasn't fair they couldn't have ice cream?  Whhhhaaaat?? 

I had realized that if Amy Bishop was not tenured, she would be fired because my eldest son was a TA at a university and he worked for a professor that made his life a living heck because she was thisclose to and trying to get tenured.   He said he really worried about her sometimes.  After she made tenure, he spoke with her and got more realization what kind of pressure she was under.  He also told me some of the professors are bringing lots of money into the university through their research, papers and such, and get very little in return if they don't make tenure.   The time and effort they've put in and no tenure means being out of a job.  It can be a very political process he also told me.  Of course this isn't a reason to shoot anyone, but my son did say the process of tenure really needs to be looked at closely.

As far as a review of hiring practices, I think it's overdue.  In my state, (TX)
 a law was finally passed   that school employees must be fingerprinted.  The teachers unions howled foul!!   (It didn't help that the teachers were expected to pay $40.00 for the fingerprinting)  That it trod upon their rights.  Well, teachers work among children.  Our children.  Some teachers with DUI's were found, some with felonies and this was not known by the schools when hired.  I think the schools should have that background information, imo.  I'm wondering sometimes if perhaps schools aren't wanting to dig too deeply, as it makes it harder to hire.  I understand there is a shortage of teachers already.


As far  drudge saying she was an oddball etc., I've found from experience some people that are extremely brilliant sometimes can be misunderstood or considered by some to be not so social.  They tend to think outside the box, if you see what I mean.  I know what you mean about how opinions vary.  Some may have found Amy Bishop as she's described in the Drudge Report article (I read there too), or others that will say she was normal, friendly and etc.  I've wondered myself how people might describe me.  Wouldn't it depend upon the time in your life?  I am different then I was when I was in my teens, different than when I was when I was in my 30s etc. (will stop there, LOL) and it depends on the situation.  In some neighbor hoods I got along famously with my neighbors, but there was one place I lived and I had the neighbors from hades. 

When I post an article, I'm posting what I'm finding.  It doesn't mean I agree with it, but I put it in here for people to see.  Sometimes I will post my opinion under it.  I think it helps to have articles from various sources, to perhaps give different sides/views. 

I will never understand this...you can tell just by looking at this woman that she 'isn't right'  ::MonkeyNoNo:: 

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/02/15/amd_mugshot_bishop.jpg)

Very sad situation. I believe there will be many, many lawsuits in the near future.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/prosecutor_says.html
Prosecutor says Amy Bishop could have been charged in 1986
EmailE-mail|Link February 16, 2010 06:03 PM
Norfolk County prosecutors have just announced that they have located the missing files in the 1986 shooting death of Seth Bishop by his sister, Amy Bishop. The Norfolk County district attorney now says that, after reviewing the files, he has concluded that probable cause existed in 1986 to arrest Amy Bishop and charge her with assault and weapons crimes. But, at the time, the death was declared accidental.

Here is the statement from the Norfolk District Attorney's Office:
As a result of an internal audit of municipal records ordered by Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan over the weekend, today Mayor Sullivan and Braintree Police Officials hand-delivered to the Norfolk District Attorney's Office a substantial body of police reports, previously believed to be missing, relative to the 1986 shooting of Seth Bishop.

These reports have been reviewed by senior staff at the District Attorney's Office, including the Chief of Homicide, the Chief Appellate Attorney and a lieutenant detective of the State Police assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney's Detective Unit.

The District Attorney's Office is also in receipt of the State Police ballistics report relating to the shotgun that was used in the Dec. 6, 1986 shooting.

All of these documents are attached for your review, along with previously released documents.

The analysis of the newly received documents, as well as the previously released March 30, 1987 State Police report indicate that probable cause existed at that time to place Amy Bishop under arrest charged with:
Assault with a Dangerous Weapon, Chap. 265 Sec. 15B
Carrying a Dangerous Weapon, Chap. 269 Sec. 10, 12D
Unlawful possession of ammunition, Chap. 269 Ch. 10 (h)

The statute of limitations has run on all of those charges.

The reports supply significant additional details into the incident and the circumstances of the apprehension of Amy Bishop. The reports do not contradict the previously released information regarding the sole eye witness, the victim's mother, who told police at the time that she directly observed the shotgun in her daughter's hands discharge accidentally, striking and killing Seth Bishop.

Even if a Grand Jury were to hear allegations that this incident involved wanton and reckless conduct on the part of Amy Bishop -- the lowest standard for Manslaughter in Massachusetts -- the statute of limitations has barred indictment on that charge since 1992.


Mayor Sullivan stated: "On Monday, February 15, 2010 after a search of archived records, Chief Frazier located the Braintree Police reports written by officers involved with the incident. The reports were found among other investigative files maintained by a retired Braintree Police Captain." Mayor Sullivan further stated: "A review of Braintree municipal records also revealed that Amy Bishop's mother was one of 240 elected Town Meeting members. She represented Precinct 3 from 1980 to 1993. She served one year (1985) on the Braintree Arts Lottery Council, with her husband. There is no indication in town records that she served on the Personnel Board or any other elected or appointed office."
"I appreciate the work we were able to accomplish with District Attorney Keating throughout this matter and I believe our combined efforts are in the best interest of the town of Braintree," Mayor Sullivan said.

"Although the reports and my statements contain minor discrepancies, I am relieved that we now have the incident reports from the responding officers available to us," Chief Paul Frazier stated.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/amy_bishop_was.html
Amy Bishop was charged with assault in 2002 IHOP dispute
EmailE-mail|Link February 16, 2010 06:51 PM                            ::MonkeyShocked::
By Maria Cramer and Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another mother.

Bishop, according to a police report, strode over to the other woman, demanded the seat and launched into a profanity-laced rant.

When the woman would not give the seat up, Bishop punched her in the head, all the while yelling "I am Dr. Amy Bishop."

Bishop received probation and prosecutors recommended that she be sent to anger management classes, though it is unclear from court documents whether a judge ever sent her there.
The woman, identified in court documents as Michelle Gjika, declined to comment, saying only "It's not something I want to relive."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com

http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=267080&SecID=2
6:40

x57
Professor charged in shooting made discrimination claim
2/16/2010 5:10 PM
By: Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Officials said a professor accused in a deadly campus shooting in Alabama filed a complaint last year alleging gender discrimination by the university.

Professor Amy Bishop was accused of shooting three of her colleagues to death and wounding three others during a meeting Friday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Police haven't revealed a motive but colleagues said she complained often about being denied tenure in March. Her appeal was denied in November.

University spokesman Ray Garner said Tuesday that the university denies the accusations, which are in a complaint pending before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The complaint itself, filed Sept. 15, was not immediately available.

Bishop represented herself and did not have an attorney for the complaint.

http://wbztv.com/local/amy.bishop.assaults.2.1498979.html
 Feb 16, 2010 6:55 pm US/Eastern
Bishop Assaulted North Shore Mom 8 Years Ago
 Reporting
Peg Rusconi
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
In the days since she allegedly opened fire on a faculty meeting at an Alabama university, Amy Bishop's face has become instantly recognizable.
For one North Shore woman, it is a blast from the past.

"I was just completely in shock and not surprised, but surprised I had an incident with her," said the woman, who spoke with WBZ on condition of anonymity.

The woman's account is backed up by a 2002 police report. She said she went to a Peabody pancake restaurant with her two small children, and was given what turned out to be the last booster seat in the restaurant.

This, she said, triggered a profane tirade from Amy Bishop, who'd just been seated with her husband and children in a nearby booth.

"She was completely crazy. Erratic and screaming and swearing... And she just came toward me and hit me on the side of the head," said the woman. "It was a closed fist and she hit me right on the side of the head when I was holding my one year old son on my hip."
According to the police report, Bishop shouted multiple times, "I am Dr. Amy Bishop!" inside the restaurant.

The victim and police said the restaurant manager got Bishop's license plate as Bishop fled with her family, and called police. The matter landed in Peabody District Court. Bishop, who was living in Ipswich at the time, was charged with assault and battery and being a disorderly person.

According to court documents, Bishop admitted to the facts two months later - was ordered to stay away from the victim, and after 6 months of probation, the charges were dismissed.

We've got the shooting at U of Alabama
We've got the fatal shooting of Amy's brother Seth
We've got the pipe bomb questions
We've got Amy punching a mother in the head while she held a baby(assault & battery charge & being disorderly person)

Again, I wonder what else there is that could be told about Amy Bishop?

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/dontquoteme/archive/2010/02/16/herald-on-bishop-d-amp-d-made-her-do-it.aspx

Herald on Bishop: D&D made her do it
Published Feb 16 2010, 11:12 AM by Adam Reilly
2

Today in the Herald, Laurel Sweet takes the still-unfolding story of Amy Bishop in a new direction: Bishop, she reports, loved to play Dungeons & Dragons back in the day...just like Wakefield workplace killer Michael McDermott!

    Bishop, now a University of Alabama professor, and her husband James Anderson met and fell in love in a Dungeons & Dragons club while biology students at Northeastern University in the early 1980s, and were heavily into the fantasy role-playing board game, a source told the Herald.

    “They even acted this crap out,” the source said....

    The popular fantasy role-playing game has a long history of controversy, with objections raised to its demonic and violent elements. Some experts have cited the D&D backgrounds of people who were later involved in violent crimes, while others say it [sic] just a game....


I am not, I confess, a Dungeons & Dragons connisseur. But I know the game has been around for a few decades--and in that time, it hasn't exactly spawned an epidemic of violence. Maybe that's why Sweet doesn't meet the traditional quota for a "trend" piece by citing a third Dungeons & Dragons-influenced killer.

Limited analytical value notwithstanding, Sweet's piece has generated some entertaining responses over at bostonherald.com. One commenter notes that Red Sox hero/conservative agitator Curt Schilling is a big D&D type, and forecasts a horrific Fenway massacre to come.  Another offers: "I heard she used to play hopscotch and jump rope as a child. That's it, time [to] ban these destructive activities from the past time of America's youth." And a commenter with the moniker johntheobscure weighs in with this:

    My name is John Ruch. I freelanced for the Herald for years, during which I played D&D regularly, as I still do.

    This article is the exact type of hateful, incompetent, fraudulent, lazy and incorrect "reporting" that convinced me to stop associating myself with the Herald.

 Feeling some back-to-the-80s deja vu? You're not alone:
http://www.youtube.com/v/nFIWUYr0n10&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hf_Cw1b1x1DmRrdG4hiu4P55yZTgD9DU1JHG0
Students complained about prof charged in rampage

By JAY REEVES (AP) – 1 hour ago

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Students say they complained to administrators about an Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues and wounding three others in a shooting rampage during a faculty meeting.

The students upset with biology professor Amy Bishop told The Associated Press they went to University of Alabama in Huntsville administrators at least three times, complaining she was ineffective in the classroom and had odd, unsettling ways.

A petition signed by dozens of students was sent to the department head. But students said the complaints made a year ago didn't result in any changes in the classroom.

Bishop was denied tenure last year and was in her final semester when she was accused of shooting her colleagues to death Friday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — When police finally tracked down Amy Bishop on the day she shot and killed her teenage brother in 1986, she was crouching behind a parked car, carrying a shotgun at waist level with one round in the chamber and a second in her pocket.

The details come from police reports released Tuesday, as law enforcement officials said there
was probable cause to file weapons and assault charges against her at the time of the shooting at the family's home in Braintree, Mass.

Details of the 1986 death and its investigation have surfaced since Bishop, a biology professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, was arrested and charged in a university shooting rampage at a faculty meeting Friday that left three people dead and three injured. Relatives of victims in last week's shooting have questioned whether much of the violence could have been prevented if the earlier case had been handled properly.

Bishop's past encounters with the law have also included 2002 charges for a fight over a child's booster seat at an International House of Pancakes and her questioning in an attempted pipe bombing in 1993.

The newly released police reports from the 1986 shooting had been sought since the Alabama shooting. After reviewing them, Norfolk, Mass., District Attorney William Keating said Bishop could have been arrested on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of ammunition. Even so, Keating said, the police reports don't necessarily contradict Bishop's mother's claim that the shooting of 18-year-old Seth Bishop was an accident. Also, the statute of limitations has expired.

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who was the district attorney at the time, said Wednesday he has limited memory of the shooting. He spoke with The Associated Press in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he is traveling and said his former first assistant was in charge of the case and has responded to questions about it.
"I understand I haven't had a real opportunity to get into the details of the case but I suspect when I return I'll have an opportunity to become debriefed and I know there have been statements but I'm not really in a position to see any records," Delahunt said.

The reports say Bishop told officers she came downstairs from her bedroom at their home in suburban Braintree, Mass., to get help unloading a shotgun. As she walked into the kitchen, she said, her mother told her not to point the gun at anyone and she turned and the gun went off, striking her brother in the chest.

They also detail for the first time how she was detained. Bishop had fled with the gun, and two officers tracked her down outside a car dealership near her home. As one officer asked Bishop to put the gun down, a second officer, using a truck as cover, moved within about 5 feet of Bishop.

"I drew my service revolver and yelled three times drop the rifle," Officer Timothy Murphy wrote. "After the third time she did."

Police examined the shotgun and found it loaded with a 12-gauge round. A second round was discovered in her pocket.

Bishop, a 44-year-old, Harvard-educated neurobiologist, was under extra guard at an Alabama jail, charged with capital murder and attempted murder. She could face the death penalty, although the local prosecutor said he has not yet decided whether to pursue capital punishment
Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Two were wounded — professor Joseph Leahy remained in critical condition and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo was in serious condition Tuesday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, was released from the hospital.

The shootings erupted in the middle of a regular monthly faculty meeting. Assistant professor Joseph Ng, one of a dozen people at the meeting, said Bishop drew a gun and opened fire.

Bishop was targeting faculty members sitting closest to her, Ng said. As his injured colleagues went down, he and other survivors dived under the conference room table.

Then, within seconds, the shooting stopped, because her weapon had apparently jammed.

The lull gave the survivors an opportunity. Debra Moriarity, a biochemistry professor, scrambled toward Bishop and urged her to stop shooting, Ng said. Bishop aimed the gun directly at her and pulled the trigger, but it failed to shoot, he said.

Moriarity then led the charge that forced Bishop out the door.

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

Moriarity said Bishop pointed the gun at her and tried to shoot several times. "I know I yelled at her, 'Amy, think about my grandson, think about my daughter,'" she told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired Wednesday.

"She looked like she was intent on doing this, and she was angry," Moriarity said.
After Bishop was pushed out of the room, the faculty members propped the conference room table against the door and called 911. Then they braced for her to return, but Bishop never came back — and Ng still isn't quite sure why.

"She could have killed everyone in the room," said Ng. "It could have been much worse."

Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were also questioned in 1993 by investigators looking into a pipe bomb sent to one of Bishop's colleagues, Dr. Paul Rosenberg, at Children's Hospital Boston. The bomb did not go off, and nobody was ever charged.

Then in 2002, Bishop was charged with assault, battery and disorderly conduct after a tirade at the International House of Pancakes in Peabody, Mass. Peabody police Capt. Dennis Bonaiuto said that Bishop became incensed when she found out another woman had received the restaurant's last booster seat. Bishop hit the woman while shouting, "I am Dr. Amy Bishop," according to the police report.

Bonaiuto said Bishop admitted to the assault in court, and the case was adjudicated — meaning the charges were eventually dismissed.

Some victims' relatives have questioned how Bishop was hired in 2003 after she was involved in previous criminal investigations, but University President David B. Williams and others defended the decision to hire her. He said a review of her personnel file and her hiring file raised no red flags.

Police ran a criminal background check Monday, he said, after she was charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder.
Even now, nothing came up," Williams said.

LeBlanc reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Desiree Hunter and Jay Reeves in Huntsville, Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Mark Pratt in Boston, Ashley Thomas in Philadelphia, Devlin Barrett in Washington and Aron Heller in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/witness_cops_didnt_follow_up_after_bishop_threatned.php?ref=fpb

Witness: Cops Didn't Follow Up After Bishop Threatened Me With Gun In '86
Justin Elliott | February 17, 2010, 10:05AM
A man who was working at the newspaper distribution center where police apprehended a fleeing Amy Bishop after she killed her brother in 1986 tells TPMmuckraker that investigators never followed up with him, even though Bishop had threatened him with a shotgun, demanding to know if he had a car.

The revelation is at least the second -- and possibly the third -- known instance of Bishop pointing her gun at people she encountered after fleeing her home. And it provides more evidence of possible police missteps in the investigation of the shooting of Seth Bishop -- which was ruled an accident, mainly on the word of Seth and Amy's mother.

Bishop was abruptly released on the day of the shooting, purportedly because she was "too emotional" to be questioned. Investigators didn't speak to her until 11 days after the incident. A state police report concluding the incident was an accident has been criticized as deficient and does not mention the fact that Bishop threatened passersby after fleeing the scene.
The Norfolk County District Attorney said yesterday there was probable cause to charge Bishop with crimes including assault with a dangerous weapon in 1986, but charges were not pursued for reasons that are still unclear.

The witness who spoke to TPMmuckraker was 16 at the time, working at a Boston Globe distribution center called Village News. It was on Washington Street in Braintree, Mass, just a few blocks from Bishop's home. He requested anonymity to avoid the spotlight on his family.

He says he saw Bishop, 21, that day walking across Parkingway St. from the newspaper center, with a gun. Standing in the door, he yelled out to his coworkers over the sound of a newspaper bundling machine, that there was a girl with a gun outside.

Bishop came over and, "from 15 or 20 feet away, she pointed the gun right at me, and she said, 'Do you have a car?'" He put his hands up.

"And I said, 'I don't have a car.'"

"She was so close, I'll never forget her face," he says. "She was obviously upset, nervously looking around."

After he yelled for a coworker to hand over the keys to his car, the sound of a police siren filled the air and Bishop dashed away around the building.
A short time later, Bishop appeared right at the entrance of the newspaper center, and that's where officers apprehended her. "Drop your f***ing gun," the witness remembers one officer shouting repeatedly.

A local police report from the time, released Monday after we spoke to the witness, corroborates his claim that Bishop was arrested outside the newspaper office, and that an officer yelled at Bishop to drop the gun. The other details of the witness' story could not be independently verified.

The witness says the police simply never showed interest in talking him or the other employees of the newspaper office who saw Bishop threaten him with the gun. "If there was an investigation, it didn't extend to the people who were in the newspaper building," he says.

A spokesman for the Braintree Police Department declined to comment.

The witness' account of Bishop's threat is in line with the picture painted in the local police report and recent news accounts of her frantically fleeing the scene of the shooting, looking for a car. A man who worked at the auto body shop adjacent to Village News told the Boston Herald that Bishop pointed her gun at him as she was looking through the shop to find a car.

And, according to the current Braintree police chief, one of the police officers who was on the scene remembered Bishop pointing the gun at a motorist "in an attempt to get the driver to stop." That incident is not mentioned in the contemporaneous police report, nor is the interaction between Bishop and the Village News employee.

Thomas Pettigrew, the man who says he was held up at the auto body shop, says police talked to him after the incident, "but he never heard from them again," according to the the Herald.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/the_novels_of_amy_bishop_university_of_alabama_shooting_suspect__152377.asp
The Novels of Amy Bishop, University of Alabama Shooting Suspect
By Jason Boog on Feb 17, 2010 05:23 PM
gawkerlogo23.pngJournalists around the country have focused on the life of neurobiologist Amy Bishop--the suspect arrested for the murder of three of her University of Alabama colleagues.

Now, investigations have turned to Bishop's work as a novelist. Earlier this week the Boston Globe reported that Bishop had written three novels and is related to novelist John Irving.

Gawker did some more digging to find what may be one of her novels, a science fiction book entitled: If Bullets Were Gold. Here's an excerpt from the post: "We did a search of the U.S. Copyright Office's records show that in 1999, someone named Amy Bishop Anderson registered the copyright for a 260-page book called The Martian Experiment. At the time, Amy Bishop was a 34-year-old molecular biologist and biochemist at the Harvard School of Public Health living in Ipswich. She participated in a workshop called the Hamilton Writer's Group."

In addition, the Boston Globe uncovered an excerpt from a manuscript entitled Amazon Fever: "The book's heroine, Olivia, is trying to make it as a scientist during a pandemic, struggling mightily against depression and fear of losing tenure. She muses about the poet Sylvia Plath and her suicide -- and continually worries about her future."

Surely there must be more ....
Sad thing is...if she had been convicted in her brother's killing in 86' and sentenced to LIFE w/o parole...none of the rest ever would have happened. I see mega lawsuits ahead.

The Norfolk District Attorney's Office released a statement that said, after reviewing the recently found files, probable cause existed to arrest Bishop. But, at the time, the death was declared accidental. The statute of limitations on those charges ran out in 1992, the statement said.

Excerpts from the statement:

The reports supply significant additional details into the incident and the circumstances of the apprehension of Amy Bishop. The reports do not contradict the previously released information regarding the sole eye witness, the victim's mother, who told police at the time that she directly observed the shotgun in her daughter's hands discharge accidentally, striking and killing Seth Bishop. ...

Mayor Sullivan further stated: "A review of Braintree municipal records also revealed that Amy Bishop's mother was one of 240 elected Town Meeting members. She represented Precinct 3 from 1980 to 1993. She served one year (1985) on the Braintree Arts Lottery Council, with her husband. There is no indication in town records that she served on the Personnel Board or any other elected or appointed office."
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/02/massachusetts_district_attorne.html

Her mother covered for her in 86' to keep her out of jail. She probably didn't want to lose another child... :roll:


My mother would have dragged me down to the police station herself!! .....especially if I had killed my sister :roll:

 :smt045 :smt045 :smt045  My mom would have too, under those circumstances.

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/x590378193/Friends-recall-brilliant-young-man

Friends recall ‘brilliant’ young man
Painful memories return for Seth Bishop’s childhood pal

(http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x196137353/g12c000e8b719eb1271ac39eed892a564ae1ef9ed588d16.jpg)

Seth Bishop's yearbook photo from 1986.

 By Fred Hanson
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 18, 2010 @ 07:06 AM
Last update Feb 18, 2010 @ 10:53 AM
BRAINTREE —

Dan Shaw can’t drive past the time capsule in front of town hall without thinking about his friend Seth Bishop.

Inside the time capsule is a drawing Bishop did when he was a student at the Hollis Elementary School. The capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2076, the nation’s 300th birthday.

Shaw recalls telling Bishop, “We’ll all be long gone, and your art will still be in the time capsule.”

Bishop has been gone for more than 23 years now, shot by his sister Amy in the kitchen of the family’s Hollis Avenue home on Dec. 6, 1986. Authorities ruled the shooting accidental.

“I still mourn my friend,” Shaw said. “To this day, I miss the guy.”

A year younger than Seth Bishop, Shaw grew up a block away from the Hollis Avenue house and still lives in the neighborhood.

He remembers climbing the tree in the Bishops’ front yard with Seth, lending him comic books, and playing the game “Dungeons and Dragons” with him.

The media spotlight on Seth’s death following the arrest of Amy Bishop for allegedly killing three of her University of Alabama-Huntsville colleagues has brought back “a lot of painful memories” for Shaw.

He believes Seth’s shooting was an accident.

“It was just a horrible accident that happened at the time,” Shaw said. “There was no intent. Seth was a brilliant young man who died before his time in a stupid accident. The kid had so much promise.”

He recalled seeing Amy Bishop at Seth’s wake.

“She was absolutely hysterical,” Shaw remembers. “She was bawling her eyes out, being held up by her parents.”

From the time he spent in the Bishops’ home, he remembers the family as “nice people. I don’t remember a lot of arguing and fighting.”

He recalls that Samuel Bishop, Seth and Amy’s father, bought a shotgun after the family home was broken into during the funeral of a relative. It was the gun that Amy fired within feet of her brother, killing him.

Both Samuel and Seth Bishop had state firearm identification cards.

Shaw said he knew Amy just to say hello. As for Seth, Shaw said: “He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He never spoke a bad word about anyone.’’

Shaw said he would see the Bishops on occasion after Seth’s death, but it he said it was too painful for any of them to do more than acknowledge each other.

Shaw noted that the Bishops stayed in the home where Seth died for several years after the shooting. Judy Bishop remained active in the community, serving as a town meeting member until 1993.

“They weren’t hiding from anyone,” Shaw said.

Braintree Town Clerk Joseph Powers went to school with Seth Bishop from kindergarten through high school. Their birthdays a day apart, they celebrated them together in their elementary classes.

“He had an absolutely brilliant mind,” Powers said. “He had exceptional gifts with science and with certainly with music.”

Amy and Seth Bishop both played the violin, and Powers described Seth as a virtuoso even at an early age.

“I remember him playing the violin in the third grade and the teachers were in awe of his ability,” Powers said.

As for his reaction at the time of Seth’s death, Powers remembers the shock.

“Those of us who grew up with Seth are reminded of the terrible death he endured and the gifts that were lost,” he said.

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, the Norfolk County district attorney at the time of the shooting, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he has a very limited memory of the Bishop case. The Quincy Democrat, who is traveling in Israel, said he expects to be briefed on the details when he returns to the United States.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2010/02/delahunt_im_not.html
Delahunt: I'm not really in a position to see any records

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33099.html

Shooting becomes issue for Delahunt

By JAMES HOHMANN | 2/17/10
(http://images.politico.com/global/news/100217_delahunt-ap_218.jpg)
Rep. Bill Delahunt is under fire by an opponent who says Delahunt took a pass on prosecuting Amy Bishop.  Photo: AP


Last week’s shooting rampage at the University of Alabama has become a political issue for Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), as one of his opponents is claiming that Delahunt took a pass on prosecuting the alleged shooter when he was a district attorney in the 1980s.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/us/16alabama.html

After a Shooting, Colleagues Try to Regain Footing

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/02/16/us/16alabama_CA0_span/16alabama_CA0-articleLarge.jpg)
From left, Gopi Podila, Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis were killed in the shooting Friday at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Luis Cruz-Vera and Joseph Leahy were wounded.

By SHAILA DEWAN and KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: February 15, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — When after many months of careful tending, Sarah Cseke reached a milestone in her graduate student research, she went straight to the office of the busy chairman of the biology department at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Gopi Podila, to share the triumphal moment.
I knocked on his door with a petri dish full of hairy roots, and he actually came to the door and took the time to look at it,” she said. “He was just as happy as I was.”

On Friday, the biology department at the university lost Dr. Podila, 52, and two other faculty members in a hail of gunfire at an afternoon faculty meeting. A colleague with a Harvard Ph.D., Amy Bishop, is charged with capital murder. Another professor and the department administrator are still in the hospital in critical condition.

The deaths have left a small, close-knit department trying to pick up the pieces without either its leader, Dr. Podila, or the person colleagues described as its “glue,” Stephanie Monticciolo, 62, the administrator, who doles out hugs and birthday reminders. Ms. Monticciolo is in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

The two other people killed were Maria Ragland Davis, 50, and Adriel Johnson, 52, described as professors who spent hours of extra time helping students. A colleague, Joseph Leahy, 50, a microbiology professor known for his zesty lectures, remained hospitalized with a head wound.

“They will leave a large hole in our department,” said Debra Moriarity, a biology professor and the dean of the university’s graduate program.

A third member of the department, Luis Cruz-Vera, was released from the hospital over the weekend.

When Dr. Podila, a native of India, arrived nine years ago to build the university’s biotechnology program, colleagues had to struggle to find him vegetarian meals. He and his wife, Vani, quickly became well known in Huntsville’s Indian community, arranging performances and, together, choreographing traditional Indian dances. He had two teenage daughters.

Dr. Podila was described as an enthusiastic administrator with a research interest in biofuels and the symbiotic relationship between fungi and trees. But he was just as interested in human symbiosis, said Joseph Ng, a fellow professor. “He was always encouraging collaborative efforts,” Dr. Ng said.

Dr. Johnson, who was married to a veterinarian, was from Tuskegee, Ala. He had two sons, one in college and one in high school, with whom he had recently been visiting colleges. His research focused on diabetes. On campus, he was the director of the Louis B. Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, and he also screened and helped students who wanted to go to medical school.

His desire to make sure minority students succeeded made him a stern but fatherly figure, colleagues said.

Dr. Davis, an enthusiastic gardener who was married and had three stepchildren, came to the campus from one of the city’s prominent biotechnology companies, Research Genetics. James Hudson, who started the company, said he had hired her away from Alabama A&M, where she was doing postdoctoral research. He said she had wanted to improve agriculture in developing countries by creating plants that could thrive in inferior soil.

In an interview on “Good Morning America” on ABC, Melissa Davis, Dr. Davis’s stepdaughter, said the family had still been recovering from the death of her mother when her father remarried. “We didn’t want to open our hearts quickly because we loved our mom so much, and Maria came in with this gentle and kind heart,” Ms. Davis said. “She just brought this life back.”

On Monday, officials in Massachusetts continued to pore over Dr. Bishop’s past, including a 1986 case in which she killed her brother with a shotgun. The shooting was declared accidental, but questions are being raised about it again. The revelation that she and her husband were questioned in the attempted mail bombing of a Harvard colleague has also drawn interest.

John Polio, the former police chief in Braintree, Mass., who came under criticism for not pursuing charges in the shooting, said Monday that while he stood by the decision, he had come to wonder in light of the Huntsville killings and the pipe bomb investigation.

“You put them all together and it does make you doubt just what happened and how it happened,” Mr. Polio said. “You have to be more than a psychiatrist to figure that one out. I don’t think anybody can really get a handle on it. These things happen, and they happen to people we least suspect they could happen to.”

Also Monday, Dr. Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that his wife had borrowed the 9-millimeter handgun found near the shooting site and that he had gone with her to an indoor shooting range in recent weeks. He had previously said the family did not own a gun.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0218/Beat-up-cars-and-neuron-computers-broken-dream-of-Amy-Bishop

Beat-up cars and neuron computers: broken 'dream' of Amy Bishop?

The emerging portrait of neurobiologist and murder suspect Amy Bishop shows a disconnect between how she saw herself and her life and the actual reality of her experience.

By Patrik Jonsson Staff writer / February 18, 2010

Neurobiologist Amy Bishop, the suspect in last week's shooting of six scholars at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, liked to talk up her relationship to Harvard and the writer John Irving (a second cousin), but didn’t want her writing buddies to see that she drove a beat-up Chrysler.
After confronting a woman at a fast-food restaurant in 2002 for taking the last booster seat, Dr. Bishop, a mother of four, punched her while yelling, “I am Dr. Amy Bishop!”

And after decades spent climbing the rungs of academe only to be denied tenure, Bishop allegedly responded to others' failure to recognize her achievements as she saw fit by pulling out a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun at a faculty hearing, opening fire, and emptying bullets until the gun jammed and clicked in the face of a colleague.

A disconnect between Bishop's actual life experience and the life of success and recognition she evidently expected is a recurring theme in the case of the woman with the dark past. Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, has told the press that his wife has had no mental health issues. But legal experts expect Bishop to plead insanity to several charges of murder and attempted murder.

“You have to talk about Amy Bishop’s mental health in this situation as one of the variables, but being denied tenure when you’re in your mid-40s at an out-of-the-way obscure rural campus in the deep South is a catastrophic loss, and people don’t understand that,” says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. “If you’re denied tenure, you’re fired. And in this economy chances are you’ll have to change your career, which is pretty hard for a woman who’s spent a decade in graduate school on a prestigious campus, Harvard, and had a good reputation for scholarship. Where is she going to go?”

Revelations that Bishops was a suspect in two previous violent acts – an unsuccessful mail-bomb attack on a Harvard professor and the fatal shooting in 1986 of her younger brother, Seth Bishop (ruled an accident) – have prompted a closer look at her patterns of behavior. The portrait that is emerging is of an “oddball” whose ideal of family and career may be, as a character in Bishop's unpublished novel says, “just a dream.”

Criminologists say that Bishop, a mother in her 40s, bucked nearly all existing profiles of mass killers last Friday when she opened fire on a roomful of colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, one of NASA’s civilian space hubs. Three colleagues were killed and three others seriously injured.

Bishop had been denied tenure at the state research university, a decision she had appealed. The increasingly competitive hunt for research money and the requirement of strong academic connections in that quest are being widely discussed as possible motives. Bishop had been working on a "living computer" built from mammalian neurons at the time of the shooting.

Now, The Boston Globe’s unearthing of an unpublished Bishop novel, “Amazon Fever,” gives another glimpse into Bishop’s state of mind. [] The novel, writes the Globe’s Meghan Irons, “is peppered with references to Harvard … and follows Olivia to Alabama, where she struggles to save a flagging career.… Through it all are Olivia’s anxieties about achieving success as a scientist.”

“She was here to save her career, which was flagging in perpetual postdoctoral fellowship,’’ Bishop wrote. Bishop sent the novel, which she evidently had been working on for years, to a friend in Massachusetts about six months ago, according to the Globe report.

Prosecutors are considering the death penalty.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/18/professors_say_tenure_fights_create_high_stress_situations/

Professors say tenure fights create high-stress situations
Bishop case puts focus on mental health monitoring
By Tracy Jan
 February 18, 2010
As the Amy Bishop investigation continues, local professors say that the sensational twists and turns in the case should not obscure the role that the intense competition for tenure seems to have played in last week’s shooting at the University of Alabama campus in Huntsville.
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http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO135918/
Local doctor targeted by Bishop speaks out
Posted:  Today at 6:20 pm EST      Last Updated:  Today at 6:35 pm EST
BOSTON -- A local doctor targeted nearly 17 years ago by the suspect in a campus rampage in Alabama is speaking out.

In 1993, Amy Bishop was questioned about two bombs sent to the home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg. Both had been working together in a lab at Children's Hospital Boston. Bishop was reportedly concerned about receiving a negative evaluation from Rosenberg.

He and his wife on Thursday extended their sympathies to those affected by the shooting, saying in a statement:

"As has been reported, I was targeted with a bomb sent through the mail to our home in 1993. We called the police who alerted federal authorities. Amy bishop and her husband were questioned but were never charged. We hope that there is a thorough investigation into this recent crime, so that no one else will be victimized by such senseless violence."

Dr. Gopi Podila, Dr. Adriel Johnson and Dr. Maria Ragland Davis were all killed in the shooting spree. The first of three funerals takes place on Thursday.

Bishop, who is currently in jail, is charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting last week at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

A witness says a meeting had been going on for about half an hour when Bishop took out a gun and started shooting.

The biology professor's students reportedly complained last year that her classroom behavior was odd and that she rarely looked people in the eye while talking.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/hold_for_postin.html
Official: No exoneration letter sent to Bishop or husband in 1993 bomb case
February 18, 2010
Federal law enforcement officials did not send Amy Bishop and her husband a letter telling them they were cleared in the 1993 mail bombing investigation of a Harvard Medical School professor, an official said today, contradicting statements Bishop's husband has made to the media since his wife was charged in an Alabama shooting rampage.

"No letter was ever sent,'' said the law enforcement official, who is not authorized to speak publicly on the case.

Bishop's husband, James E. Anderson, has acknowledged the couple were both questioned by federal investigators after a package containing two pipe bombs was sent to the Newton home of the professor, Dr. Paul Rosenberg, who was also a physician at Children's Hospital Boston.

Bishop had worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the hospital's neurobiology lab under the supervision of Rosenberg and another doctor and left that job several weeks before the attempted bombing, the hospital has acknowledged.

Anderson told the Globe recently that he and his wife had been questioned in the attempted mail bombing. He said neither of them was a suspect, but rather, they were "subjects'' of the investigation.

It was "just a matter of questioning, being bothered, harassed. You know the usual techniques, that's all,'' Anderson told the Globe.

Anderson also told The New York Times that the lead investigative agency, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, notified the couple in writing that their role in the investigation had ended. The agency is often known by the acronym, ATF.

"In my files I have a letter from the ATF saying, 'You are hereby cleared in this incident. You are no longer a subject of the investigation.''' Anderson told the Times.

Anderson didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment today.

Rosenberg had just returned home from a Caribbean vacation with his wife on Dec. 19, 1993 when he was opening a package addressed to "Mr. Paul Rosenberg M.D." that had been brought inside with the rest of the mail by his cat-sitter. When he saw wires and a cylinder inside, he and his wife fled the house and called police.

At the time, police said the bomb would have exploded and killed Rosenberg and anyone in the vicinity if he had opened the end flaps of the package. They said the bombs didn't detonate because Rosenberg had opened the package by cutting around the top of it with a knife.

During the 1990s the so-called Unabomber, who sent bombs to university professors, airline officials, computer scientists and other targets, was also the target of a massive FBI-led investigation.

In December 1993, the Globe reported that Terence McArdle, who was then special agent in charge of the ATF's New England office, said the investigation pointed away from the Unabomber because there were no structural similarities between the bomb sent to Rosenberg and the sophisticated devices recovered from incidents attributed to the Unabomber.

The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, was arrested in Montana in 1996 and later pleaded guilty to 16 mail bombings between 1978 and 1995 that killed three people and injured 23.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021804067.html
Alabama shooting puts spotlight on tenure process
By ERIC GORSKI
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 18, 2010
 While the circumstances behind the deadly shooting at the University of Alabama-Huntsville remain unclear, the Harvard-trained neurobiologist accused in the rampage was upset about being denied tenure - the academic world's highly coveted form of job security.

The profile of Amy Bishop that is emerging suggests deep-seated emotional problems and a history of violence. But her vocal displeasure about being rejected in the period leading up to the attack has cast a spotlight on the increasingly pressure-packed quest for tenure at American colleges.

Within the academic world, there's little debate that the trials of tenure have grown more intense in recent years - largely because there are fewer opportunities to gain an academic foothold, greater expectations for scholarly output and an economic climate that is anything but rosy.

"You remember it almost like a death in the family," said John Tisdale, a journalism professor who was denied tenure at Baylor University in 2002 for reasons that he said were never fully explained.

"I know this happens to people every day, so I don't want to sound melodramatic ... It's so traumatic. Your life is turned upside down. Obviously it's a professional setback, but it's personal, too."

Decades ago, schools were hiring, and tenure was almost automatic. Now, cost-conscious colleges and universities are turning to part-time and adjunct faculty who will never get a shot at tenure. Some live like academic nomads, drifting from position to position with marginal pay or benefits.
Professors lucky enough to land tenure-track positions must endure rigorous scrutiny and, at times, an ambiguous process deciding their fate. Those who wash out wear the scarlet letter of academia. Although some fail to regain their footing, others go on to success in the classroom or the business world.

Tisdale joined Baylor University as adviser to the student newspaper in 1987 and earned his master's and Ph.D. while working full time. He was put on the tenure track in 1996. Although his reviews were good and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Tisdale lost his bid for tenure.

The former newspaper reporter and copy editor appealed the decision, but he also started a job search almost immediately. While he could have stayed at Baylor another year, he accepted a position at Texas Christian University and is now a tenured professor and associate director of the journalism school.

"You hate to say this, but failure is a great teacher, and you learn your lesson and go forward," Tisdale said.

Bishop is accused in the attack last week that killed three fellow professors. Because of her field, she had brighter future career prospects than many other scholars rejected for tenure. According to one report, one of the victims was a professor who supported her tenure bid.

A tenure dispute being linked to violence, let alone deaths, is practically unheard of. In 1992, an associate professor who had been denied tenure at Concordia University in Montreal killed four colleagues.
t's a shock to be denied tenure "when your entire sense of self and your intellectual life is tied into your perception of yourself as an academic," said Cat Warren, a tenured associate professor of English at North Carolina State University. "It is a rigorous process, and it's difficult."

But, Warren added: "You have to admit, life these days is generally difficult. I mean, everybody works under stressful situations. There's danger in drawing any sort of lesson from this clearly tragic case."

Defenders of tenure, which makes firing and discipline difficult, say job protection gives professors the freedom to express ideas and conduct studies without fear of reprisal, ultimately benefiting students.

While the number of tenure-track positions grew by 7 percent between 1975 and 2007, non-tenure track jobs more than tripled, according to the American Association of University Professors. The recession has turned up the pressure, said Cary Nelson, president of the association and a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Your most coldly accurate expectation would be, if you don't get tenure, you'd better look for another career," he said.

William Tierney, director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California, said tenure is stressful for all involved in part "because it is by its very nature marked by ambiguity. The criteria are not crystal clear about what it takes to get it."

The typical criteria for awarding tenure are teaching, scholarship and service, meaning things like serving on committees and advising student groups. Some schools put a premium on scholarly publications and a professor's success in landing research grants, while others make teaching a priority in awarding tenure.

Tierney said faculty can get conflicting messages from school presidents and department chairs about what's important. Then, when someone is rejected for tenure after six years on campus and is given another year to stick around and job-hunt, "there is sort of a sense of dead man walking," he said.

"Oftentimes I don't think the academic community has thought through what we need to do to help someone ... both with their mental health and their future," he said.

Experts say the bar is higher to achieve tenure, but that's been the case for several years. In the 1960s, the concern was "tenure by default" - that faculty were being awarded for just sticking around, said Gregory Scholtz, director of the American Association of University Professors' department of academic freedom, tenure, and governance.

Now, it's not uncommon for tenure candidates to turn in portfolios 2 or 3 feet high stacked with teaching evaluations, syllabuses, examples of course materials, scholarship and explanations of their teaching philosophy, Scholtz said.

Along with citing deficiencies in the three traditional tenure criteria, schools turn down candidates because they cannot justify the hire financially, Scholtz said. Other faculty have been deemed not "collegial" enough - not getting along with others to a fault.

The fact that expectations have risen in the past 25 years for earning tenure is a positive development, said Ada Meloy, general counsel for the American Council on Education.

"Higher education in general should not be static," she said. "We're constantly trying to improve learning and knowledge and research and teaching."

Tenure-related litigation increased with the advent of anti-discrimination laws, but there's been no noticeable change in volume in recent years, said Robb Jones, senior vice president and general counsel of United Educators, an insurance company owned and operated by more than 1,160 schools and organizations.

It's believed most tenure-track professors achieve tenure, but there's a dearth of solid data.

Academics denied tenure can have a hard time getting tenure-track positions elsewhere - unless they are coming from an Ivy League school or other elite institution. Most who stick with academics patch together part-time appointments at other local schools, community colleges or for-profit schools, Scholtz said.

Others go on to successful careers. Bishop was better positioned than, say, a classics professor denied tenure. While at Huntsville, she developed a new type of portable cell incubator and won $25,000 in a statewide business competition in 2007. The school has not disclosed why she was denied tenure.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/18/da_rips_gap_in_bishop_report/
DA rips gap in Bishop report
He says omission of standoff ‘glaring’
By Maria Cramer and Shelley Murphy
Globe Staff / February 18, 2010
The Norfolk district attorney ramped up his criticism of the 1986 investigation of Seth Bishop’s death yesterday, saying that it was “glaring’’ and “striking’’ that local police accounts of Amy Bishop’s armed standoff at a local business were not included in the State Police report or considered as part of the prosecutor’s decision about whether to pursue charges.
“It was a glaring omission that . . . there wasn’t the inclusion of the shooter who exited her house with a gun, leveling the gun at an innocent bystander, and making demands on that bystander,’’ William R. Keating said in a telephone interview.

Although Braintree police had documented in great detail how Bishop had pointed a 12-gauge shotgun at two employees at a local auto body shop and demanded a getaway car, there is no indication in the final State Police report that they shared this information with the troopers who worked out of the district attorney’s office and were assigned to the case.

Keating also revealed yesterday that the state trooper who wrote the report, Brian L. Howe, has told investigators in Keating’s office that he “did not have a recollection’’ of Braintree police telling him of the incident. That backs up the repeated assertions of the assistant district attorney assigned to the 1986 case, who also said he was never made aware of the second assault.

Last Friday, 23 years after Bishop escaped charges in the shooting death of her brother and her armed encounter at the body shop, police say the Harvard-educated neurobiologist fatally shot three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and injured three others.

In the aftermath, a series of troubling questions have been raised about how the Braintree case was handled, with several key figures in the investigation - including former Braintree police chief John Polio - saying they were unaware of crucial facts surrounding the death of 18-year-old Seth Bishop.

Keating said yesterday that he was confounded by Polio’s admission that he did not know Bishop had pointed her firearm at a mechanic and demanded a getaway car. These details were included in Braintree police reports made public on Tuesday after they had previously been declared missing.

“The report reflects what his own police officers saw,’’ Keating said. “And if he’s saying that he wasn’t aware that Amy Bishop took a loaded shotgun and pointed it at an innocent bystander, I find that astounding. He’s saying he didn’t read his own [officers’] reports.’’

Polio acknowledged yesterday that he read the reports of his own officers for the first time when they were released by Keating’s office this week. Polio said he did not read the reports in 1986 because his officers told him the case would be handled by State Police and the district attorney’s office.
“I’m not fingerpointing at anybody,’’ Polio said. “I know what part I played and what I did, but the lines of communication broke somewhere. I have no regrets whatsoever.’’
US Representative William D. Delahunt, who was Norfolk district attorney at the time of the 1986 shooting, has been in Israel since the Alabama shootings, but was questioned about the case yesterday at a press availability called after the congressional delegation was blocked from entering Gaza.

“I haven’t had a real opportunity to get into the details of the case, but I suspect when I return I’ll have an opportunity to become debriefed,’’ the congressman told the Associated Press.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier first raised concerns about the handling of the investigation during a Saturday press conference. Yesterday, an assistant in his office referred calls to Braintree’s mayor, Joseph Sullivan, who declined to comment on Keating’s remarks.

Sullivan said town officials worked through the weekend to find the Braintree police reports, which Frazier said had been missing for more than 20 years. They were ultimately found in a box at the police station among the papers of an investigator on the case, who has since died.

“I wanted to get the facts out as quick as we could,’’ Sullivan said.

On Sunday, the Globe, citing an anonymous law enforcement official, reported that Bishop and her husband were questioned in the attempted bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor in 1993. Investigators searched the home Bishop shared with her husband, but no one was ever charged in the crime.

Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, acknowledged that he and his wife had been questioned, but he told the New York Times that he had been given a letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that said: “You are hereby cleared in this incident. You are no longer a subject of the investigation.’’

However, Michael J. Sullivan, who served as US attorney for Massachusetts from 2001 to 2009 and had been acting director of the ATF, said it is extremely unusual for federal officials to write such a letter unless the suspects or those questioned were publicly linked to the case. The names of Bishop and her husband were never publicly linked to the case until after Friday’s shootings.

“There probably were one or two times during my career as a federal and state prosecutor where I felt an obligation to give that type of letter because a person’s reputation was harmed through no fault of their own and there was an exoneration of the individual,’’ said Sullivan, who emphasized that he had no personal knowledge of the Bishop case.

On Tuesday, Keating said Bishop should have been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition for pointing her shotgun at innocent bystanders. Braintree police had to order her to put down her weapon, which she did not do, forcing one officer to grab her from behind, according to the newly released reports.
Keating said the errors made in the 1986 case are the kind that shake public confidence in law enforcement.

“It’s important to go forward so that the same mistakes can’t be repeated,’’ he said.

Among those mistakes, said Keating, were letting Bishop go without questioning her the day of the shooting because police concluded she was too distraught to be interviewed and the decision by local and State Police to wait 11 days before interviewing her and her mother, the sole witnesses to the shooting.

“If you eliminated everyone from an interview that was emotionally upset after a shooting death, you’d have no one to talk to,’’ Keating said. “If someone takes a loaded shotgun, levels it at someone, and makes demands, and the person goes to the police station and gets released and there are no charges, I don’t think anyone could say that wasn’t a mistake.’’

Braintree police also should have waited for the State Police crime scene response unit to arrive at the house and allowed their troopers to take pictures and document evidence, Keating said.

According to the local police report, in the moments following the shooting, Braintree officers photographed the scene and removed evidence, like spent shells, after Howe reportedly told Captain Theodore Buker of the Braintree police that “State Police would not respond.’’ But in Howe’s six-page report, which he wrote in March 1987, he said he was directed on the day of the shooting to conduct an investigation.

It is unclear from the state and town reports when or whether State Police went to the scene that day.

Keating said it is standard procedure for smaller towns, like Braintree, to immediately hand over death investigations to the State Police and the district attorney’s office, which have more resources.

“The statutes are clear that the district attorney and the State Police attached to the district attorney have primary responsibility over the investigations of death,’’ Keating said. “There should be a clear chain of command on investigations, and as I reviewed the documents . . . based on those reports, that chain of command, that sharing of information was not there.’’

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/02/19/2010-02-19_alabama_shooter_professor_amy_bishop_is_likely_insane_lawyer.html

Professor accused in Alabama shooting, Amy Bishop, is likely insane: lawyer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, February 19th 2010, 10:28 AM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- An Alabama college professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting is likely insane, and she can't remember the shootings, her attorney said.

Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that his client has severe mental problems that appear to be paranoid schizophrenia. Miller discussed the case hours after hundreds of mourners attended the first funeral and memorial services for Bishop's slain co-workers.

Authorities said three more people were hurt when Bishop pulled out a handgun and started shooting during the routine meeting with colleagues last Friday. Charged with capital murder and attempted murder, she is being held without bond.

Miller said Bishop's failure to obtain tenure at the University of Alabama in Huntsville was likely a key to the shootings. Bishop, who has a doctorate from Harvard University and has taught at the University of Alabama in Huntsville since 2003, apparently was incensed that a lesser-known school rejected her for what amounted to a lifetime job.

"Obviously she was very distraught and concerned over that tenure," Miller said. "It insulted her and slapped her in the face, and it's probably tied in with the Harvard mentality. She brooded and brooded and brooded over it, and then, `bingo.'" From what I can see, it isn't "bingo".  She didn't snap.  She planned.  She obtained a firearm.  She practiced.  Premeditated murders JMHO

Bishop's husband, James Anderson, told ABC's "Good Morning America" he also thought the failed tenure battle was involved.

"Only someone who has been intricately involved with that fight understands what a tough, long, hard battle (it is) ... That I would say is part of the problem, is a factor," he said in an interview aired Friday.

Anderson said his wife had never taken any anger management courses, even though prosecutors asked for that when Bishop was charged with starting a fight over a booster seat at a restaurant in 2002. Anderson told ABC he didn't think she needed the course. Bishop admitted to the assault in court, and the charges were dismissed six months later. Prosecutors "asked for that".  Was she supposed to take anger management courses as part of her deal with probation?  Anderson tld ABC he didn't think she neede the course?  After his wife publicly punched another woman in the head as the woman held a one year old child, and this was over a booster seat?  I think James Anderson is full of it.  Or maybe he lacks something, like good sense. JMHO

Miller said Bishop seems "very cogent" in jail, where he has spent more than three hours with her over two days, yet she also seems to realize she has a loose grip on reality.

"She gets at issue with people that she doesn't need to and obsesses on it," Miller said. "She won't shake it off, and it's really (things of) no great consequence."

Bishop, who claims an IQ of 180, can't explain the shootings, he said.

"She says she does not remember anything about it," said Miller.

The chief prosecutor in Huntsville said he would not oppose a mental evaluation for Bishop, 45.

"In this case as in all cases, if they want to start talking about a mental defense, then have at it. We'll be ready when it comes to court," said Madison County District Attorney Robert Broussard.

Miller said he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty, but Broussard said his office hasn't decided whether to seek Bishop's execution or a sentence of life without parole if she is convicted.

"We'll wait until we have every piece of evidence in front of us to decide on that," said Broussard. He said investigators had yet to review evidence about Bishop's troubled past, including her fatal shooting of her younger brother in 1986 in a case authorities in Massachusetts ruled accidental.

In Bishop's only public comments since the slayings, the teacher said the shootings "didn't happen. There's no way."

"What about the people who died?" a reporter asked as she was led to a police car hours after the killings.

"There's no way. They're still alive," she responded.

The shooting decimated the biology department - of 14 members, six were killed or wounded, one is jailed, and the rest are dealing with the shock and loss of colleagues. Two of those shot were hospitalized in critical condition Thursday, while another who was shot in the chest has been released.

Mourners hugged and cried Thursday at a memorial service for biology department chairman Gopi K. Podila. A long line of mourners moved slowly from the funeral home lobby, down a hallway and before an open casket in the sanctuary.

He was remembered as a father figure who cared deeply about his students, the kind of professor who kept his office door open in case they needed to talk about personal problems. Former student Joy Agee recalled that he helped her overcome her anxiety about a speech to a community group by showing up in the audience.

"He told me if I got nervous during the speech to just look at him and just talk to him," she said.
Podila had supported Bishop's tenure application.

After the service for Podila, more than 100 people attended a service held by the Council on African-American Faculty for slain biology professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis.

Johnson had organized the council at UAH in 2004, while Davis helped promote it in recent years. The two were among seven black faculty members at the school at the time, a number that had grown to 14 prior to their deaths. Overall, the school has 340 full-time faculty members.

"We have not only lost two founding members of our group but we have also lost two of our biggest advocates," said Sonja Brown-Givens, the council's current president.

(My comments in blue-MuffyBee)

http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/news/x1650247568/Review-ordered-of-1986-Braintree-Bishop-case-investigation

Review ordered of 1986 Braintree Bishop case investigation
By Robert Aicardi
GateHouse News Service
Posted Feb 20, 2010 @ 10:55 AM
Braintree —

Gov. Deval Patrick has ordered a review of the State Police’s role in the investigation of the Dec. 6, 1986 shooting death of Sean Bishop, 18, by his older sister Amy in their Braintree home that was ruled to be accidental.

The case has been scrutinized since Amy Bishop was arrested for the shooting deaths of three colleagues and the wounding of three others during a Feb. 12 University of Alabama faculty meeting.

“It is critical that we provide as clear an understanding as possible about all aspects of this case and its investigation to ensure that where mistakes were made, they are not repeated in the future,” Patrick said in a Feb. 19 statement.

A day earlier, Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said that his office is probing the investigation of the shooting of Seth Bishop.

“There have been mistakes in the handling of this case,” Keating said. “If there are any elements of criminality that can be prosecuted in the future, we will be doing it.”

At the direction of Patrick, earlier in the week the State Police had begun reviewing documents in its possession and assessing its role in the investigation, Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan said in a Feb. 19 statement.

“A preliminary review indicated that most of the relevant documents are possessed by the Norfolk district attorney’s office, as the State Police investigators involved in the case were attached to that office,” she said. “ After further discussion with the district attorney’s office, this initial review will be folded into the full review being conducted by the district attorney.   The primary investigators conducting that review are troopers attached to the district attorney’s office. Furthermore, the State Police will provide additional investigative resources, as needed by the district attorney, from their Division of Investigative Services.”

Mayor Joseph Sullivan issued a statement on Feb. 19 concerning the controversy,

 “Throughout the events of this past week, the thoughts and prayers of the Town of Braintree have been with the families and the victims of the shootings at the University of Alabama at Huntsville,” he said. “The motivation for the review, retrieval, and disclosure of the records relating to the 1986 shooting of Seth Bishop has been simply to provide as much information as possible relating to an incident that happened nearly a quarter century ago. The Town of Braintree and its police department will continue to work in conjunction with the Norfolk County district attorney and other law enforcement agencies to provide any information they deem relevant. We are also committed to being transparent throughout this process and to learn from it.”

The mayor added, “I have full confidence in the integrity, fairness, and professionalism of the men and women of the current Braintree police department. I am thankful for the consistent commitment they demonstrate daily towards enhancing the safety and quality of life of our community.”

He concluded, “Life has a way of testing and tempering us all. While this past week has presented challenges for Braintree, I am steadfast in my belief that we will emerge from this experience a safer and stronger community.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/us/21bishop.html
Fury Just Beneath the Surface
Published: February 20, 2010

This article is by Shaila Dewan, Stephanie Saul and Katie Zezim
Not long after Amy Bishop was identified as the professor who had been arrested in the shooting of six faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Feb. 12, the campus police received a series of reports even stranger than the shooting itself.

Several people with connections to the university’s biology department warned that Dr. Bishop, a neuroscientist with a Harvard Ph.D., might have booby-trapped the science building with some sort of “herpes bomb,” police officials said, designed to spread the dangerous virus.
Only people who had worked with Dr. Bishop would know that she had done work with the herpes virus as a post-doctoral student and had talked about how it could cause encephalitis. She had also written an unpublished novel in which a herpes-like virus spreads throughout the world, causing pregnant women to miscarry.

By the time of the reports, the police had already swept every room of the science building, finding nothing but a 9-millimeter handgun in the second-floor restroom.

But the anxious warnings reflected the fears of those who know Dr. Bishop that she could go to great lengths to retaliate against those she felt had wronged her.

Over the years, Dr. Bishop had shown evidence that the smallest of slights could set off a disproportionate and occasionally violent reaction, according to numerous interviews with colleagues and others who know her. Her life seemed to veer wildly between moments of cold fury and scientific brilliance, between rage at perceived slights and empathy for her students.
Her academic career slammed to a halt with the shooting rampage nine days ago against her colleagues. Dr. Bishop, 45, is accused of killing three fellow biology professors, including the department’s chairman, at a faculty meeting. Three others were wounded.

Her lawyer says she remembers nothing of the shootings and that he plans to have her evaluated by psychiatrists.

The shootings took place after Dr. Bishop learned that she had lost her long battle to gain academic tenure at the university. But they were hardly the first time that she had come to the attention of law enforcement because of an outburst or violent act.

In 2002, she was charged with assault after punching a woman in the head at an International House of Pancakes in Peabody, Mass. The woman had taken the last booster seat, and, according to the police report, Dr. Bishop demanded it for one of her children, shouting, “I am Dr. Amy Bishop!”
In 1986, not long after a family argument, Amy Bishop shot and killed her brother, Seth, 18, with her father’s 12-gauge shotgun, putting a gaping hole in his left chest and tearing open his aorta, according to the police report. She was 21 years old and, like her brother, a student at Northeastern University.

But Amy Bishop was not charged with a crime, and the shooting was never fully investigated by the police. She and her family said it was an accident, and the authorities accepted their version.

And in 1994, she and her husband were questioned in a mail bomb plot against a doctor at Harvard, where she obtained her Ph.D. and remained on and off for nearly a decade to conduct postdoctoral research.

In each brush with the law until this month, Dr. Bishop emerged unscathed, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville never knew of them. But she left behind a trail of neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances who were mystified by her mood swings and volatility.

She yelled at playing children, neighbors said, and rarely kept her opinions to herself. She rejected criticism and fudged her résumé. Her scientific work was not as impressive as she made it seem, according to independent neurobiologists, some of whom said she would
have been unlikely to even get the opportunity to try for tenure at major universities.

She was known to have cyclical “flip-outs,” as one former student described them, that pushed one graduate student after another out of her laboratory. On the day she shot and killed her brother, she ran out into the street with the shotgun and demanded a car at a local dealership.

Dr. Hugo Gonzalez-Serratos, now a professor of physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, collaborated with Dr. Bishop on a 1996 paper while both were working in the cardiology department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, affiliated with Harvard. When the paper was completed, Dr. Gonzalez-Serratos said, Dr. Bishop flew into a rage.

Page 2( continued from above)

Page 2 of 4)

“She was very angry because she was not the first author,” he recalled, referring to the more prominent position. “She broke down. She was extremely angry with all of us. She exploded into something emotional that we never saw before in our careers.”
Her contract in the department was not renewed.

Even those who worked with her on fiction writing in Massachusetts described the experience as painful and said they always had a feeling she was about to explode.

“When I worked with her, I found she was always within striking distance of the edge,” said Lenny Cavallaro, a writer who said he collaborated with Dr. Bishop on “Amazon Fever,” the unpublished novel about the virus.

A Shell in Her Pocket

On the morning of Dec. 6, 1986, there was an argument at the home of Judith and Samuel Bishop, a Victorian house among the grandest in Braintree, Mass., a middle-class suburb of Boston.

Judy, active in local politics and well known around town, was out horseback riding. Seth was outside washing his car. Sam Bishop, a film professor at Northeastern, was heading to the mall before lunch to do some Christmas shopping. But before he left, he and his daughter, Amy, had some kind of dispute, according to police records. It was over something Amy had said.
Amy went upstairs to her room and would later tell the police that she had decided to load her father’s shotgun. She wanted to learn how it worked, she said, because there had been a break-in at the house not long before.

Sam Bishop had bought the gun a year earlier in Canton, Mass., and he and his son joined the local Braintree rifle club. He had left the gun, unloaded, on the top of a trunk in his bedroom, enclosed in a case. The shells were in a nearby bureau.

Amy had never used the shotgun before.

She loaded it and a blast went off in her room. Police later found evidence that she had tried to conceal the results of that blast, using a Band-Aid tin and a book cover to hide holes in the wall.

Carrying the shotgun, she descended the stairs to the kitchen, where her brother and mother were standing.

“I was at the kitchen sink and Seth was standing by the stove,” Mrs. Bishop told the police. “Amy said, ‘I have a shell in the gun, and I don’t know how to unload it.’ I told Amy not to point the gun at anybody. Amy turned toward her brother and the gun fired, hitting him. Amy then ran out of the house with the shotgun.”

Mrs. Bishop said the shooting had been an accident.
As police officers and emergency medical technicians tended to Seth, who was bleeding to death on the floor, another group of officers went in search of Amy, who had headed toward Braintree’s commercial district.

Tom Pettigrew, who was working in the body shop of a Ford dealership, said he and his friends saw a young woman walking around, looking into cars, carrying a shotgun.

“I kind of stepped back and said, ‘What’s going on, what are you doing here?’ ” Mr. Pettigrew said in an interview. “She said, ‘Put your hands up.’ I put my hands up and repeated the question.”

He continued: “She was distraught. She was hyperaware of everything that was going on. She said: ‘I need a car. I just got into a fight with my husband. He’s looking for me, and he’s going to kill me.’ ”

Minutes later, the police found Amy Bishop, still holding the gun, near a village newspaper distribution agency, where workers were busy unloading Sunday papers. According to Officer Ronald Solimini’s report, she appeared frightened, disoriented and confused, but she refused his orders to drop the gun until another officer approached her from the other side.

When the police took her into custody they found one shell in the shotgun and another in her pocket.
As Officer Solimini and a partner drove Amy Bishop to the police station, she made a remark that surprised him, according to the report. “She stated that she had an argument with her father earlier,” Officer Solimini wrote. “(Prior to the shooting, she stated!)”

(Page 3 of 4)

Police officers began to question Amy, but her mother arrived and told her not to answer any more questions. Paul Frazier, the current police chief of Braintree, said that Amy Bishop’s release “did not sit well with these officers,” and that the lieutenant in charge of booking that night told him a higher-up had given instructions to stop the booking process.
In an interview Wednesday, the area’s current prosecutor, William R. Keating, district attorney of Norfolk County, was highly critical of the handling of the shooting 24 years ago, particularly because it appears that Amy Bishop’s actions after her brother’s shooting — demanding a car at gunpoint and refusing an officer’s orders to drop the gun — were not conveyed to state authorities who investigated the case.

“It’s not a minor thing that would be omitted,” Mr. Keating said.

Mr. Keating said Amy Bishop could have been charged with weapons and assault felonies, which would probably have prompted a psychiatric evaluation. Had such a charge, or any of the others that followed, been on her record, it could have changed the course of Dr. Bishop’s career, and the fate of those who died in Huntsville.

Instead, the investigation was stopped.
Did someone intervene to save Amy Bishop from prosecution? Her mother served on the town committee, an elected legislative panel of 240 members that set the town’s spending. Or was Amy’s release merely a town’s way of caring for its own, the way small towns do?

That night, after the gory mess in the kitchen had been cleaned up by helpful neighbors, one of the investigating officers, Billy Finn, stopped by to see if the family needed food.

“You cannot imagine how kind the Braintree police were to us,” Judy Bishop told The Braintree Forum and ******* a week later.

Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has ordered the State Police to review its role in the case, and the district attorney is also conducting an inquiry.
Grievances and Appeals

The job application for the University of Alabama in Huntsville asked, “Have you ever been convicted of an offense other than a minor traffic violation?” Amy Bishop, who took a tenure-track job there in 2003, answered the question with a simple “no.”

Technically, she was correct. She was never charged with her brother’s death, and though she was sentenced to probation in the IHOP incident, she was never officially found guilty. She and her husband, James E. Anderson, were questioned in connection with the mail bomb sent in 1993 to one of her mentors at Harvard, Dr. Paul A. Rosenberg, a professor of neurology, but nothing came of it. A law enforcement official has said federal agents are now going back over the case.

Mr. Anderson initially insisted to The New York Times that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had sent him and his wife a letter clearing them in the pipe bomb case, but the law enforcement official said it was extremely unlikely the bureau had sent such a letter. Mr. Anderson later produced a letter from his lawyer, Robert Harrison, dated June 2000, saying that the United States Postal Service was “closing the file” on its separate investigation.
Dr. Bishop also arrived in Huntsville with a padded résumé, giving the impression that she had worked at Harvard two years longer than the university’s records indicate.

Still, as a new professor with recommendations from Harvard and two other universities, Dr. Bishop did not attract scrutiny. She, her husband, a computer engineer who now works at a start-up company, and their four children settled into a house in a quiet subdivision, and she began her new job in the biology department.

At first, colleagues and students said, she came across as funny and extroverted, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about campus issues. She became the biology department’s representative to the Faculty Senate — not necessarily a coveted job, but one she seemed to enjoy.

She was, however, not universally liked. Some students say they found her so unresponsive that they signed a petition complaining that, among other things, her test questions went beyond what was covered in class. Dr. Bishop would say, “Well, my daughter took it and she got an A, so you should be able to do it,” said Caitlin Phillips, a junior studying nursing.

(Page 4 of 4)

Graduate students did not last long in her laboratory, and those familiar with the department said that most transferred to a different one before completing their degree. In May 2006, she dismissed a graduate student from her lab. The student promised to return some notebooks and a set of keys the next day, a person familiar with the incident said, but Dr. Bishop called the campus police that night, according to a campus police report. The student filed a grievance against her.
But in 2008, Dr. Bishop seemed to be riding high. She and her husband had developed an automated cell incubator that was supposed to keep finicky cells, like nerve cells, alive longer and make experiments easier. The university, which would share in any proceeds, was trying to market the device, and the university president, David B. Williams, predicted that it would “change the way biological and medical research is conducted,” according to The Huntsville Times. In the winter of 2009, a smiling Dr. Bishop was shown on the cover of The Huntsville R & D Report.

Prodigy Biosystems, where Mr. Anderson now works, ultimately raised $1.25 million to develop the product.

In March 2009, however, Dr. Bishop received word that her bid for tenure had been denied because her research and publication record were not strong, colleagues said. Such denials are rare, faculty members said, because the university reviews tenure-track professors annually, alerting them to areas that need improvement.
Even though faculty members, including her department chairman, counseled her to look for another job, Dr. Bishop appealed the decision.

“Her attitude was not, ‘I’m going to have to go find another job,’ ” said Eric Seemann, an assistant professor of psychology. “It was more like, ‘When are these idiots going to clear this up?’ ”

She lobbied for a revote in the department, badgering people for support, her colleagues said. They disputed an assertion by her husband after the shooting that Dr. Bishop had won the appeals process and the provost had overruled the decision. The appeals process identified only a minor procedural problem, which was remedied, they said. Last November, a university spokesman said, her appeal was finally denied.

Increasingly expressing concern about her family’s finances, Dr. Bishop hired a lawyer, her husband said, and filed a discrimination complaint against the university. He said she also began going to a firing range. In the weeks leading up to the shooting, he told reporters, he had gone with her to the range once. He said she claimed to have borrowed the gun she used.

Her lawyer said Friday that she did not remember what happened next. But the police and witnesses say that on Feb. 12, Dr. Bishop went to a routine faculty meeting with a plan. And a loaded handgun.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2398-Boston-Top-News-Examiner~y2010m2d21-Amy-Bishop-Gifted-womans-life-took-tragic-turn-after-fatal-shooting
Amy Bishop: Gifted woman's life took tragic turn after fatal shooting
February 21, 2010

(http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID2398/images/resized_f52120_Bishops_02212010.jpg)
James Anderson and Amy Bishop in a photo by the Huntsville (Ala.) Times.
The daughter of a Northeastern professor, Amy Bishop was a brilliant and gifted student, and talented musician, but had few friends and cherished her relationship with her younger brother, Seth, according to accounts reported by a team of investigative reporters for the Boston Globe.

Accused of methodically shooting six people in Alabama earlier this month, Bishop's life appears to have been permanently altered by the fatal shooting of her brother in December 1986, when she "blasted a hole in his chest," with a 12-gauge shotgun, according to the Globe.

Investigators for the state police and district attorney didn't interview the Bishops until 11 days after the incident, which they determined was accidental. But although Bishop was never charged in her brother's death, the effects of it stayed with her.

Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, met at Northeastern and were married in 1989. But in 1993, the couple were investigated by the Post Office and ATF after two pipe bombs were found at the Newton home of Bishop's Harvard doctoral advisor.

After spending a few years living in the Boston area, in Ipswich, the couple moved to Alabama, where Bishop joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Two weeks ago, Bishop's rage and disappointment at being rejected for tenure exploded when she allegedly pulled out a hand gun at a department meeting and shot three colleagues to death, wounding three others.

She faces capital murder charges in Alabama, which may seek the death penalty. Her lawyer plans to argue Bishop is not responsible due to insanity, according to the Boston Herald.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/ala_da_insanity.html
Ala. DA: Insanity defenses usually not worth much
February 19, 2010

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

The district attorney whose office will prosecute Amy Bishop had no comment today on her defense attorney's suggestion that she is mentally ill, but he said it wouldn't be unusual for someone in circumstances like Bishop's to plead insanity.

"This is certainly not the first case I’ve ever seen or handled where someone essentially is caught in the act and the next thing you know they are insane," said Madison County District Attorney Robert Broussard.

Generally, he said, juries in his jurisdiction seldom acquit defendants who plead insanity.

"In my experience, the public sees insanity defenses for what they’re worth, which is not much," Broussard said, adding that any expert who testifies that a defendant is insane is giving an opinion, not a scientific fact.

"All they are are opinions," he said. "You can hire someone to say pretty much what you want. It will be left to a jury that studies the facts and the background and the jury will study the law and the jury will decide."

Bishop is accused of shooting six people, three of them fatally, at a University of Alabama Huntsville faculty meeting last Friday. Roy W. Miller, Bishop's court-appointed attorney, said today that she is likely insane.

Broussard said that if a defense lawyer pursues an insanity defense, he or she leaves the door open for a prosecutor to look into all aspects of the defendant's life, including prior crimes.

That means that if Miller tries to argue that Bishop was insane at the time of the Alabama shootings, Broussard could introduce evidence from the 1986 killing of Seth Bishop, Amy Bishop's brother, who died after Bishop shot him in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun. The shooting was ruled accidental at the time, but new questions about the way the case was handled have raised doubts about whether Bishop should have been charged. After shooting her brother in their Braintree home, Bishop fled, still holding the shotgun, according to Braintree police reports written at that time. She pointed the weapon at a mechanic in an auto body shop and had to be apprehended by police at gunpoint.

Broussard said he plans to be in touch with Massachusetts authorities about the Braintree case. He said he was disappointed to learn of the way police handled the shooting more than 20 years ago, but was glad to learn authorities were now reviewing how the investigation was conducted.

"I think it’s impossible not to have those feelings of frustration of what could have been had authorities up in Massachusetts perhaps done what they should have done," Broussard said. "But I don’t waste a lot of time on what might have been and looking backwards."

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/newton/articles/2010/02/21/ambition_fueled_a_smoldering_rage/
Ambition fueled a smoldering rage
Morbidly shy and driven, ornery and oddly sweet, Amy Bishop craved fame in the worst way. She found it.
February 21, 2010
(http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2010/02/20/1266721017_5077/300h.jpg)
Amy Bishop, pictured in the 1983 Braintree High yearbook.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/delhaunt_and_ki.html
Delahunt defends actions in 1986 Bishop killing
 February 22, 2010

By Michael Rezendes and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

US Representative William Delahunt, the former Norfolk district attorney, today defended his handling of Amy Bishop's fatal 1986 shooting of her brother in Braintree, which was ruled an accident.
"I thought we handled it appropriately, given the information we had," Delahunt, breaking his silence on the case, said in an interview with the Globe.

Kivlan, who took part in today's interview, said the district attorney's office was never informed of Amy Bishop's actions after shooting her brother. Braintree police had completed written reports saying that Bishop had also attempted to hold up a nearby auto dealership, trained a shotgun on two individuals there, and later pointed the same weapon at a Braintree police officer.

Kivlan said current District Attorney William R. Keating's investigation should answer questions for the public and the law enforcement community.

"Why was Miss Bishop released from the police department that night," Kivlan said. "That really should be the focus."

Delahunt and Kivlan made his comments 10 days after Bishop opened fire on faculty colleagues during a meeting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, killing three professors and critically injuring two more. Delahunt was traveling in Israel at the time and had referred questions to Kivlan, so he could complete his travel plans and receive a briefing before making any detailed pubic comments.

Amy Bishop shot her younger brother, Seth, with a 12-gauge shotgun, a shooting witnessed by their mother. Keating has said there was a "glaring omission'' in State Police reports prepared under the supervision of Delahunt and Kivlan.

The case began unfolding on the morning of Dec. 6, 1986, when Bishop, then 21, fatally shot her 18-year-old brother in an incident that Delahunt's office ultimately concluded was an accident.

John V. Polio, the Braintree police chief at the time of the shooting, also said he was unaware of police reports re-counting Bishop's actions after she shot her brother.

The reports went missing for more than 20 years and were discovered last week by Braintree officials who found them in the personal files of a deceased former Braintree police capitain.

Keating has said that given Bishop's actions, Delahunt could have charged Bishop with assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of ammunition, leaving her with a criminal record that may have altered the course of her career and prevented her getting her job in Huntsville.

Instead, she was let go without any criminal record at all.

A spokesman for Keating said today that investigators are reviewing the handling of the case but declined to elaborate.

"State Police from this office and also from Framingham are working and talking to people looking to fill in some of the questions and gaps in the events of 1986 and the shooting of Seth Bishop," said spokesman David Traub. "But we're not going to be providing detail on a step by step basis."

The Braintree police reports, written in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, are explicit in their detail. According to written accounts by two Braintree officers -- Donald Somilini and Timothy Murphy -- Bishop was discovered in a stairway at the Dave Dinger Ford dealership, where she pointed her shotgun at two workers and demanded a getaway car.

After backing out of the dealership with her weapon trained on the two workers, Bishop was discovered by Solimini and Murphy. As Solimini approached her with his weapon by his side and tried to reason with her, Murphy edged closer from another direction and demanded three times that Bishop drop her weapon, finally seizing the shotgun and Bishop.

Additional police reports say that Bishop was read her Miranda rights at the Braintree police station and was talking with officers -- she told them she had a "spat" with her father before the shooting -- when Bishop's mother, Judy, entered the station and instructed Bishop to stop answering questions.

Shortly thereafter, officers received a telephone call, either from Polio or another senior officer, and were told to stop the interview. It was not until eleven days later that Braintree and State Police interviewed Bishop, he mother and her father.

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/cops_and_courts/x1758105983/Delahunt-blames-Braintree-police-in-86-Bishop-shooting

Delahunt blames Braintree police in '86 Bishop shooting
‘Opportunity was missed’ by not charging Amy Bishop, he says
 By John P. Kelly
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 23, 2010 @ 06:53 AM
Last update Feb 23, 2010 @ 07:02 AM
QUINCY —

With his seventh term about to end, U.S. Rep. William Delahunt is weighing his political future. But it’s his distant past – an investigation nearly a quarter-century ago – that has him standing before reporters and photographers in his congressional office.

In unequivocal terms Monday, Delahunt, the former Norfolk County district attorney, defended his office’s handling of a 1986 investigation of Amy Bishop, the 21-year-old Braintree woman who killed her younger brother, Seth, with a shotgun blast to the chest. She was arrested at gunpoint after fleeing the family home with the loaded weapon.
After reviewing investigative records, including Seth Bishop’s death certificate, the Quincy Democrat said nothing indicates State Trooper Brian Howe, who conducted the investigation for the district attorney’s office, was wrong to conclude that the shooting was accidental.

But Delahunt said an “opportunity was missed” by not charging Bishop with lesser weapons and assault crimes, which might have prompted a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. For that lapse, Delahunt blamed Braintree police, who freed the woman despite her alleged attempt after the shooting to steal a car from two men at gunpoint.

Delahunt and John Kivlan, who in 1986 was Delahunt’s top prosecutor, said Braintree police never informed their office of Bishop’s behavior after the shooting.

The incidents are clearly laid out in Braintree police reports.

“It’s the handling of that matter which gives rise to serious concerns and raises questions which must be answered so the public will have confidence in the integrity of the criminal justice system,” Delahunt said.

Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist who is now 45, faces capital murder charges for allegedly gunning down three fellow faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she recently was denied tenure.

In a press conference the day after the Feb. 12 shootings, Braintree Chief Paul Frazier recalled officers being frustrated Bishop was never charged in 1986. Frazier said a lieutenant booking Bishop after she shot her brother was “instructed” to let her go by then Chief John V. Polio or a member of his command staff. Frazier also said one of the arresting officers, Ronald Solimini, told him reports of the incident disappeared around 1988. Frazier located them early last week.
More than a dozen reporters and photographers filled Delahunt’s congressional office in Quincy for the hourlong press conference. Delahunt had been traveling in the Middle East last week and his remarks Monday are his first since the Alabama shootings.

Kivlan, now special counsel in Delahunt’s congressional office, criticized Braintree police in blunt terms.

“All of this outrage that’s coming from Braintree now about how awful it was that she was released – and believe me it was wrong – where have these people been for 23 years?” Kivlan said. “Where were they then? Why didn’t Frazier or Solimini or any number of these officers report that?”

A message left at Frazier’s office was not returned.

“The issue really is at this point: why was Ms. Bishop released from the police station that night?” Kivlan said. “Who authorized that? ... Was there, as Chief Frazier indicated, an intentional cover-up or not? That should really be the focus at this point.”

Polio, now 87, has denied ordering Bishop’s release.

William Keating, the current Norfolk County district attorney, and State Police have said they are reviewing the handling of the case.

John P. Kelly may be reached at jkelly@ledger.com.

http://decaturdaily.com/detail/54227.html
 2/23/10 |   1 comment
Failure to examine Bishop in ’86 a tragedy, ex-DA says
By Denise Lavoie
AP Legal Affairs Writer
AP photo by Butch Dill
(http://static.decaturdaily.com/uploads/inline/1266903219_b51a.jpg)
A memorial outside the University Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville campus Monday. Students returned to class Monday at UAH for the first time since a campus shooting claimed the lives of three professors.

BUY THIS PHOTO

QUINCY, Mass. — A former prosecutor who’s now a congressman said it’s a “profound tragedy” that an Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues didn’t get a psychiatric evaluation when she shot her brother in 1986, as he defended his actions in the case Monday.

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt was Norfolk district attorney when Amy Bishop, then 21, shot her 18-year-old brother at their Braintree home. It was ruled an accident, and Delahunt said no new information contradicts that finding.

Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, is accused of fatally shooting three colleagues and wounding three others at The University of Alabama-Huntsville on Feb. 12.

Delahunt said state police assigned to his office were never told that after Bishop shot her brother, she allegedly threatened two auto shop workers with the gun while she demanded a car or that she aimed the gun at a Braintree police officer before she was finally taken into custody.

Delahunt said if he had known that information, his office would likely have sought weapons charges against Bishop and would “undoubtedly” have asked a judge to order her to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
He would not speculate on whether that evaluation could have prevented the shootings in Alabama but said, “I think that opportunity was missed, and that to me is a profound tragedy in this case.”

Delahunt made his first public comments on the case during a news conference in his Quincy office, where he was accompanied by John Kivlan, his top assistant prosecutor when Bishop’s brother, Seth, was shot.

Defending police

Both Delahunt and Kivlan strongly defended their handling of the case, blaming Braintree police for not telling them about Bishop’s erratic behavior after she shot her brother.

“I thought we handled it appropriately, given the information that we had,” Delahunt said.

Kivlan said at least five Braintree police officers interviewed Amy Bishop and her mother and found their accounts of the shooting credible.

“There was no evidence to contradict at that time that it was an accident,” Kivlan said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ala_university_shooting
Files show Ala. suspect's husband wanted revenge
Tuesday, February 23, 2010


BOSTON – The husband of the Alabama professor accused of gunning down three colleagues once said he wanted violent revenge on a doctor who gave his wife a bad job review, according to federal documents released Tuesday to The Associated Press.

Amy Bishop is charged with killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Feb. 12. Investigative files from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show that Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned in 1993 in the attempted mail bombing of Dr. Paul Rosenberg of Boston's Children's Hospital.

Rosenberg has said he played a role in Bishop's resignation as a research fellow. A pipe bomb package was sent to his home weeks later.

The files show Anderson told a witness he wanted to get back at Rosenberg by shooting, bombing, stabbing or strangling him. The couple were never charged, and the case remains unsolved.

A phone message left with James Anderson was not immediately returned, and Bishop's lawyer, Roy Miller, was in court and not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

But James Anderson previously told the AP he and his wife were among a number of innocent people questioned by investigators who cast a wide net. He said the case "had a dozen people swept up in this, and everybody was a subject, not a suspect."

"There was never any indictment, arrest, nothing, and then everyone was cleared after five years," he said.

The Boston Globe first reported the content of the files.

The Harvard-educated Bishop, 45, remains jailed in Huntsville, charged with capital murder and attempted murder in the Alabama shooting, which also wounded three other colleagues.

Police have not offered a motive, but colleagues say she had complained for months about being denied the job protections of tenure. Her attorney said she needs mental evaluations and is laying the groundwork for an insanity defense.

Bishop fatally shot her brother in Braintree, Mass., in 1986; the case was declared an accident and she was never charged.

U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, who was district attorney at the time, now says it was a shame Bishop did not receive a mental evaluation after the shooting. He said she was not evaluated because state police working for his office weren't told that after Bishop shot her brother, she allegedly threatened two auto shop workers with the gun, demanding a car, or that she aimed the gun at police.

Had he known that, Delahunt said, his office would likely have sought weapons charges against Bishop and would "undoubtedly" have asked a judge to order her to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/investigative/22645911/detail.html
Team 5: Bishop, Husband 'Suspects' In Attempted Mail Bomb
Witness Says Bishop's Husband Made Threats Against Doctor
(Video Avail.)
February 23, 2010
BOSTON -- Amy Bishop, the Alabama professor accused of gunning down three colleagues, and her husband James Anderson were named as suspects by federal investigators in their investigation of a 1993 attempted mail bombing, according to investigative files from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The documents, released to Team 5 Investigates under a Freedom of Information Act request, repeatedly refer to Bishop and Anderson as suspects in the attempted bombing of Dr. Paul Rosenberg of Newton, Mass., during a two-year period the couple was under investigation.

A witness told investigators that Anderson was angry at Rosenberg and that "he wanted to shoot him, bomb him, stab him or strangle" him after Rosenberg had given Bishop a bad job review for her work at Boston's Children's Hospital, Team 5 Investigates reported.

"That was from an unreliable witness," Anderson said in an interview with Team 5 Investigates Kelley Tuthill.

Rosenberg has said he played a role in Bishop's resignation as a research fellow. A pipe bomb package was sent to his home weeks later.

The documents are heavily redacted and do not name any individual. However, a source close to the investigation identified Bishop and Anderson as the individuals under investigation.

The documents say Bishop was "reportedly upset and on the verge of a nervous breakdown."

During the two years the couple was under investigation, federal agents executed search warrants of the couple's home and informed them of their Miranda rights.

"I suppose it wasn't the only search warrant in this case," said Anderson, who claimed he and his wife were among a number of innocent people questioned by investigators who cast a wide net.

Neither Anderson nor Bishop were charged. The files released do not explain how the investigation concluded.

"There was never any indictment, arrest, nothing, and then everyone was cleared after five years," Anderson said.

Rosenberg and his family fled their house after discovering the bomb and were not injured.

The Harvard-educated Bishop, 45, remains jailed in Huntsville, charged with capital murder and attempted murder in the Alabama shooting, which also wounded three other colleagues.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/23/massachusetts-congressman-ex-police-chief-spar-amy-bishop-case/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+foxnews%252Flatest+%2528Text+-+Latest+Headlines%2529
Massachusetts Congressman, Ex-Police Chief Spar Over Amy Bishop Case
February. 23, 2010

As questions mount over how Alabama murder suspect Amy Bishop walked free after shooting her brother dead in 1986, a Massachusetts congressman and former police chief are embroiled in a blame game over the handling of the case.
Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., who served as district attorney of Norfolk County in 1986, is under fire from ex-police chief John Polio, who accused him of "political bloodsport" and said he failed to prosecute Bishop in the decades-old killing.

But Delahunt is faulting Polio for releasing Bishop from a Massachusetts police station -- free of charges -- and claims law enforcement did not provide him with critical details about the killing.

Bishop, a 44-year-old neurobiology professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, was charged with capital murder after she allegedly gunned down three colleagues Feb. 12 in a campus killing spree. It was later revealed that she killed her 18-year-old brother Seth over two decades ago with a 12-gauge shotgun inside the family's Massachusetts home. Authorities determined that the shooting was an accident, and Bishop was neither arrested nor charged with a felony.

Bishop's mother, who was the sole witness to the shooting, according to police reports, claimed her daughter had asked for help in unloading the weapon, which her father had bought for protection.
Retired Braintree, Mass., Police Chief John Polio said in an interview with FoxNews.com Tuesday that he "never ordered Amy Bishop released" and that "the facts speak for themselves."

"This has become a political bloodsport of which I do not want to participate," Polio said. "My memory of the events of that day has not changed."

Polio said he was "briefed" in a "single meeting" by Police Captain Theodore Buker, who had agreed with two other superior officers that Bishop's should case be referred to the district attorney.

"They recommended to me that this case be turned over to the district attorney," Polio said. "I listened, evaluated and said two words: 'Do it.'"

Polio said that once the investigation was in the district attorney's hands, "it was solely within their power to conduct a thorough investigation, avail themselves of our reports, request an inquest, convene a grand jury, levy charges against Ms. Bishop, or take no action as they deemed the incident to be accidental."

But Delahunt says Braintree police failed to give Bishop a psychiatric evaluation and withheld key information about the Dec. 6, 1986, shooting. The congressman says he was never told that Bishop fled her home after the shooting and allegedly wielded the gun and threatened two autoworkers as she tried to steal a car.

"If an arrest had been completed and charges of assault with a dangerous weapon had been filed, (the district attorney's office) would have requested psychiatric evaluation of Miss Bishop," Delahunt told the Boston Herald. "We can speculate what that might have revealed."

Also troubling to Delahunt, says Braintree's current police chief Paul Frazier, is how the original police file disappeared -- only to resurface 22 years later after Bishop allegedly stormed into a biology faculty meeting in Huntsville and shot three colleagues dead.
From previous reports, it was said Amy Bishop didn't storm into the meeting, but had sat quietly for a long time at the meeting.  Sloppy reporting...
Delahunt was not available for comment when contacted Tuesday by FoxNews.com. His spokesman, Rory Sheehan, said in an e-mail that Delahunt is urging the state to answer certain questions in its review of the case, including "why Amy Bishop was released by the Braintree Police when she was being booked on several felony charges including assault with a deadly weapon."

Polio said in statement sent to FoxNews.com that the two autoworkers did not immediately report the incident and that police may have received the report after Bishop was released from the station.

He said one of the men did not report what he "now claims was an incident where he was held at gunpoint by Ms. Bishop."

"This reporting of the incident took place at 1630 hours (4:30 p.m.), which quite possibly was after Ms. Bishop had already been released to her mother,"he said.

(My comments in blue-MuffyBee)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/25/us_orders_review_of_attempted_bombing/
US orders review of attempted bombing
Alabama shooting puts fresh scrutiny on unsolved ’93 case
February 25, 2010
The state’s top federal prosecutor announced yesterday that her office will review its investigation of the December 1993 attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor, now that a woman once considered a suspect in the case is accused of killing three people during a shooting rampage at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said in a statement yesterday that she has ordered the review to make sure all appropriate steps were taken during the investigation into the case, which had focused on a Massachusetts couple, Amy Bishop and her husband, Jimmy E. Anderson Jr. No one was ever charged in the attempted bombing, but the case has come under scrutiny again because of the charges against Bishop in the Feb. 12 shootings in Alabama.

“While it would be inconsistent with our legal obligations to release all information related to this incident, we have commenced a thorough review of the information related to this incident to confirm that all appropriate steps were taken in that matter, and to determine whether information related to this incident may be of assistance to other law enforcement agencies,’’ Ortiz said.

Former US attorney Donald K. Stern, who presided over the office during the investigation of the attempted mail bombing, had called for such a review earlier in the week, and yesterday applauded Ortiz’s decision, saying, “I think it’s the right thing for another official set of eyes to take a look, even after all these years, to make sure things were done properly, and if possible, to assist the investigators in Alabama.’’

A spokesman for the Huntsville Police Department said investigators would welcome any insights that a review of the 1993 case could provide.

“We would be grateful for any help we can get from any source,’’ Sergeant Mark Roberts said.

While the review may shed new light on the 1993 investigation, it is too late for anyone to be charged in the case. The federal law that prohibits mailing explosives carries a five-year statute of limitations.

Ortiz issued her statement two days after the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released files to the Globe detailing why investigators focused on Bishop and Anderson as they sought to determine who mailed a package containing two pipe bombs to the Newton home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg.

Bishop and Anderson moved from Massachusetts to Alabama with their four children in 2003. In a telephone interview yesterday from his home in a Montgomery, Ala., suburb, Anderson’s father, Jimmy Anderson Sr., said he welcomed Ortiz’s decision to launch a review.

“I take that on a positive note,’’ he said. “Because I think they went after the wrong people.’’

The elder Anderson questioned the credibility of a witness quoted in the ATF files as saying that Anderson Jr. had said he wanted to get back at Rosenberg by shooting, bombing, stabbing, or strangling the doctor. The files do not indicate whether investigators considered the witness credible.
The comments are out of character, first because he’s an Eagle Scout, first because I think he’s almost a pacifist,’’ the elder Anderson said. “He’s 45 years old, and I’ve never heard him use the word ‘strangle’ in his life. I’ve never heard him use the word ‘stab’ anything in his life. He’s a lover of nature. He’s not a person who would harm anybody. . . . It’s just 100 percent ludicrous.’’
He also called his son “a very docile guy, a little too docile.’’

The attempted mail bombing occurred on Dec. 19, 1993, when Rosenberg returned from vacation with his wife. As he was opening a package that had come in the mail, he saw wires and a cylinder inside. He and his wife fled the house and called police.

The ATF files provide details of the investigation that followed. The names of Bishop and Anderson are blacked out in most of the files, but three people familiar with the investigation have confirmed on condition of anonymity that the documents refer to the couple.

The documents reveal that Rosenberg, a Harvard Medical School professor and physician at Children’s Hospital in Boston, told investigators that weeks before the attempted bombing he played a role in Bishop’s resignation from her job as a postdoctoral research fellow in the hospital’s neurobiology lab because he felt she could not meet the standards required for the work.

Rosenberg said, according to the files, that he had feared Bishop was not stable, and that her co-workers had growing concerns because she had exhibited violent behavior.

Yesterday, through a spokeswoman, Rosenberg said he was pleased that the US attorney was reopening the investigation.

Bishop’s arrest in Alabama has also prompted a review in Massachusetts of how local, county, and state officials handled a 1986 case in which Bishop, then 21, fatally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth, in the family’s Braintree home. The shooting was ruled an accident at the time, but law enforcement officials now say key information was not shared between agencies, including the fact that just after the shooting, Amy Bishop threatened men at a local car dealership with a shotgun.

Governor Deval Patrick has ordered State Police to review its handling of the 1986 investigation. That review is being overseen by Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating, who is also looking into how the district attorney’s office and Braintree police handled the case. At the time, the Norfolk district attorney was William D. Delahunt, who now represents the South Shore and Cape Cod in Congress.

Former Braintree Police Chief John Polio said he was interviewed by State Police at his home Friday night for about an hour. He said investigators asked him what he recalled of the case, his knowledge of what happened that day, and who ordered Amy Bishop to be released without being charged.

Last Monday, Polio said in an interview that he had followed the recommendation of his captain to release Bishop because she was too emotional to be questioned. During that interview Polio also said that the captain, Theodore Buker, who died in 1993, told him the case should go to the district attorney’s office. Polio said he agreed with both recommendations.

Yesterday, Polio denied having said that Buker recommended Bishop’s release.

“If I said that, I misspoke,’’ he said.

Polio also denied another Braintree officer’s assertions, via his attorney, that Polio had ordered Bishop’s release after her mother, Judy, showed up at the station.

“I never saw her,’’ said Polio, who described himself as a casual acquaintance of Judy Bishop. “I never saw Judy Bishop that day, or any time subsequent thereof.’’

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12026648
A closer look at Bishop-Anderson's "InQ" invention
February 22, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - WAFF 48 News has learned about the invention Dr. Amy Bishop and her husband developed.

It's an invention that could mean new strides in diseases like Alzheimer's and ALS.

But if Amy Bishop lost her UAH job, did she still stand to gain from her invention?

When the shooting started in the Shelby Center February 12th, Amy bishop's husband, Jim Anderson, told us he was at Biztech.

He works in the lab at Prodigy, the biotech company formed under the non-profit business umbrella of Biztech to mass produce their invention: InQ.

Anderson was helping to get the couples' invention into other labs around the world.

"Amy was working on research in neural diseases and stroke and Alzheimer's and she couldn't keep brain cells alive long enough for useful research," said Prodigy board chairman Dick Reeves.

So Anderson turned that problem into potential in the form of InQ.

"The 'InQ' allows the researchers to put the cells in place like the human body. The temp stays steady. The current incubator can't do that," said Reeves.

The first InQ is scheduled to be sold in June and is about the size of an laser printer.

Reeves said while UAH owns the technology, and Prodigy is licensed to distribute it, Bishop and Anderson's names are listed as co-inventors on the patent.

That means even if she lost her $66,000 per year job at UAH, she still stood to earn much more off the invention.

We're told the new incubator, InQ, stands to earn millions.

If it does, the board of directors wants to distribute the money to the victim's families.

Ironically Dr. Maria Ragland-Davis worked with Biztech as well, hoping to turn one of her bright ideas into a promising invention.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12032521

UAH shooter's case may be years before jury trial

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12039909
Civil suits could be filed soon against Amy Bishop Anderson
Februaru 24, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Accused UA-Huntsville shooter Amy Bishop Anderson is in jail while attorneys begin work on criminal proceedings.

But what about civil action? Will the families of the shooting victims file for compensatory damages?

They can be filed at any time, even before the criminal process begins.

But the question is, who can be sued and who is protected by law.

The criminal paper work began shortly after Amy Bishop Anderson's arrest on the campus of UA-Huntsville.

She's charged with shooting six faculty members, killing three professors.

While her case waits to be tried in front of a jury, there's the possibility of civil suits.

"The members of the deceased victims and those who survived could potentially sue the shooter. I do not see any potential against UAH itself," said Decatur Attorney Scott Anderson.

"Its a state run institution and the state of Alabama has, in general, immunity.  Nobody expected this.  UAH was as prepared as they could be for something like this they acted appropriately, no one else was injured in the meeting.  She had a right to be at the meeting.  It's a bad circumstance, very unfortunate I don't see anyone being held liable for her actions," said Anderson.

Bishop Anderson claims she's indigent, and can't afford counsel.

Does that mean if a civil suit is filed against her the victims won't collect?

"Yes, she can be sued a judgement can be entered against her collecting that judgement is a different story. Not easy? You can't squeeze blood from a turnip," said Anderson.

So far no civil suits have been filed.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100224parents_angry_bishops_daughter_back_in_classroom_of_
Parents angry Bishop’s daughter back in classroom of UAH massacre victim
February 23, 2010
he oldest daughter of accused University of Alabama mass murderer Amy Bishop returned to her studies at the Huntsville campus Monday, which include the lab class of a professor her mother allegedly shot dead, the teen’s grandfather confirmed.

“There was no problem. She’s a real sweetie pie,” Bishop’s father-in-law, Jimmy Anderson Sr., 71, yesterday said of granddaughter Lily Bishop Anderson, 18, a UAH genetics major.

“She’s 18 years old and she’s an adult, and she can do what she wants,” the grandfather said. “Let her have her peace. Let her have her space.”
Anderson said it took great courage for Lily to go back to the school, which shut down last week after her 44-year-old mother, formerly of Ipswich and Braintree, allegedly gunned down three colleagues and wounded three others during a Feb. 12 faculty meeting.

University spokesman Ray Garner said Bishop had been denied tenure because of poor peer reviews. The mother of four’s $63,000 teaching job was to end in May.

The Herald heard from irate UAH parents, indignant that Bishop’s daughter would be allowed to remain in the former class of slain professor Maria Ragland Davis, 50.

“How can anybody support what her mother did? Even her own mother,” the teen’s grandfather fired back.

Davis’ widower, Salumote Davis, said he didn’t realize Bishop’s daughter was a student of his late wife, but he would not hold the tragedy against her.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said, his voice breaking.

Lily’s father, inventor and science researcher James Anderson Jr., 45, declined to comment on his daughter, saying with a chuckle, “We’re going to let that one dangle in the wind.”

Though he has still not been allowed to visit his wife in jail, he said Bishop, a neurobiologist who could face Alabama’s death penalty for the massacre, calls home periodically to check on the children.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12037786
Second attorney named in Amy Bishop murder trial
February 24, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) – A second attorney has been named to help defend the woman accused of killing three colleagues and injuring three more on the UA Huntsville campus.

Roy Miller was the first attorney appointed to this case. Barry Abston has also been selected to defend Bishop.
<snip>

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/norfolk_da_seek.html
Norfolk DA seeks an inquest in Seth Bishop's 1986 death
(Video at above link)
By Donovan Slack and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Saying he had questions about the original investigation, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating today requested an inquest into the death of Seth Bishop, who was killed by his sister, Amy, in 1986 in Braintree
The incident, which was ruled an accident at the time, has been under scrutiny since Amy Bishop allegedly went on a shooting rampage on Feb. 12 at the University of Alabama.

Keating said at a news conference this afternoon that he had filed a request for the inquest today at Quincy District Court.

He said he was seeking the inquest because, in his own review of the handling of the case, he was not getting cooperation from Bishop's parents, Judith and Samuel Bishop.

"They have refused upon our efforts to speak to investigators," Keating said.

Keating also said there were inconsistencies in the police reports, including two different accounts of Seth Bishop's body position when he was found, with one saying he was face up and another saying he was face down.

And he said that a crime scene photo from that era showed that next to the shotgun shells found in Amy Bishop's bedroom, there was a newspaper with an article that chronicled a similar attack to the one she allegedly committed.

Keating said he questioned whether the shooting was truly accidental, and he said an inquest could lead to a homicide charge against Amy Bishop.

Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated professor at the University of Alabama Huntsville, is accused of shooting six of her colleagues at a faculty meeting, three of them fatally. New revelations began emerging almost immediately about her past in Massachusetts.

Bishop, it turned out, had fatally shot her brother on Dec. 6, 1986. The shooting was ruled an accident, but the current Braintree police chief immediately raised questions about the handling of the long-ago case, which has prompted reviews by the State Police and Keating's office.

Bishop and her husband were also questioned in the 1993 attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor. No charges were filed. The US attorney in Boston says her office will be reviewing the handling of that case.

Bishop also was allegedly involved in an altercation at a Peabody pancake house in 2002 that led prosecutors to recommend that she be forced to take anger management classes.

Under Massachusetts law, a district attorney or the attorney general may call for an inquest to be held in the district court in the case of any death. Any target of the probe may be present and represented by a lawyer and can present or cross-examine witnesses.

The court reports in writing when, where, and how the person met his death, all material circumstances, and the name of any person whose acts appear to have contributed to it,. The report is filed, along with a transcript of the proceedings, in the Superior Court.

Attorney General Martha Coakley welcomed Keating's announcement, saying that in recent weeks, "it has become clear that there was a need for an independent third party review of what happened ... We are pleased that the District Attorney Keating has initiated this inquest and believe it is the appropriate course of action."

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-anderson-suspension-022510,0,2315666.story
Amy Bishop Anderson Suspended From UAHuntsville
Rikki Klaus Videojournalist

February 25, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, AL - UAHuntsville officials now say Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson, the woman accused of killing three people and injuring three others on campus, is suspended without pay.

They say the suspension takes effect February 12th, the day of the deadly shootings. The decision to suspend Bishop Anderson was made after that date.

University officials say their attorneys presented the option to suspend Bishop Anderson earlier this week. They say Bishop Anderson has not received a paycheck from UAHuntsville since the deadly attack she's accused of unleashing. The University confirms they are in the process of terminating her employment.

A number of WHNT News 19 viewers have questioned whether the injured employees are collecting their full salaries since UAHuntsville policy for "on the job injury" could dictate otherwise. UAHuntsville's injury policy says an employee can choose to take "on the job injury" leave, if they're hurt. That's when they're payed just under 67% of their average weekly wage. But, sources say this is not being applied to Leahy and Monticciolo.

The two university faculty and staff members remain hospitalized. A source confirms the university is paying them 100%.

And, another new development in the Amy Bishop Anderson saga. A Massachusetts prosecutor is calling for a closer look into the 1986 investigation on Bishop Anderson's fatal shooting of her younger brother.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating says a closed inquest before a judge would force Bishop Anderson's parents to testify. The only witnesses in the 1986 shooting were Bishop Anderson and her mother.

William Keating Press Cofnerence for Bishop murder case  02/25/10
http://www.youtube.com/v/NLYmr6c5JEM&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587531,00.html
Friday, February 26, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —  The University of Alabama in Huntsville is firing the biology professor charged with murdering three colleagues earlier this month.

University spokesman Ray Garner confirmed Friday that the school is in the process of terminating the employment of Amy Bishop.

While her job status was initially unclear after the shootings on Feb. 12, Garner says Bishop was retroactively suspended without pay since that day.

Bishop is jailed without bond on one count of capital murder and three attempted murder charges. Besides the three colleagues who were killed, she is accused of shooting three more co-workers during a faulty meeting.

An attorney is laying the groundwork for an insanity defense.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/bishops_parents.html
 
Attorney: Bishop's parents to cooperate, have 'nothing to hide'
EmailE-mail|Link|Comments (40) February 26, 2010 02:23 PM

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

Judith and Samuel Bishop will cooperate in the judicial inquest into the fatal shooting of their son by their daughter in 1986, but they are sticking by their original assertion that it was an accidental shooting, their lawyer said today.

The Bishops, who have refused to speak publicly since their daughter allegedly killed three people earlier this month in a shooting rampage in Alabama, declined to speak with State Police investigators reviewing the death last week but will testify in the inquest, the lawyer, Bryan Stevens, said.

"They have nothing to hide," he said.
Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating initiated the inquest yesterday after he said the Bishops -- the only witnesses to the 1986 shooting -- refused to cooperate and his investigators discovered evidence that suggests their daughter, Amy, may have shot and killed her 18-year-old brother on purpose. Keating said crime scene photos show there was a newspaper article in Amy Bishop's bedroom that chronicled a crime spree that closely mirrored her activities that day. In addition, Keating noted discrepancies in the Bishops' statements to police.

The lawyer who is defending Amy Bishop in the Alabama shootings also said today that he believes the judicial inquest could turn up information that will help him to mount an insanity defense. He said the same of a federal review initiated this week of an attempted mail bombing of one of Bishop's graduate professors. Bishop had been questioned in the 1993 incident but was never charged.

"My position on this is, if you ever got right down to the truth of the matter of what occurred in those areas up there, I think I would be in a better position to prove she's got a horrible mental defect and has had it a long, long time," said the lawyer, Roy W. Miller

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20347289,00.html
Did Alleged Killer Amy Bishop Murder Her Brother?

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday February 26, 2010 04:00 PM EST


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As authorities continue to gather clues into what might have prompted University of Alabama neurobiology professor Dr. Amy Bishop to allegedly open fire on six colleagues at a Feb. 12 faculty meeting – at which three people died, including the department chairman, and the other three were wounded – investigators in her home state of Massachusetts have uncovered evidence they say suggests Dr. Bishop may have intentionally gunned down her 18-year-old brother with a 12-gauge shotgun in 1986.

The state's Norfolk District Attorney, William R. Keating, on Thursday requested a judicial inquest into the death of brother Seth Bishop, which previously was ruled accidental, reports the Boston Globe.
And, in a case that continues to fascinate, according to a New York Times report this week, shortly after Bishop's arrest in the Huntsville, Ala., incident became known, campus police received a series of unsettling reports about Dr. Bishop, 45, a neuroscientist with a Harvard Ph.D. Among them was one from several biology-department insiders who warned that she may have booby-trapped the university's science building with a type of "herpes bomb" to spread the hazardous virus, according to police.

Continued here.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20347289,00.html

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100228bishop_lawyer_mom_cant_recall_probe/srvc=home&position=also
Bishop lawyer: Mom can’t recall probe
By Jessica Fargen
Sunday, February 28, 2010 - Added 11h ago
The lawyer for Amy Bishop’s mother says his client has a patchy memory of the events leading to Bishop’s mysterious release from police custody in 1986 after she shot her brother to death, highlighting the daunting hurdles of an inquest ordered by Norfolk District Attorney William Keating.

Judy Bishop recalls being “distraught” as she waited for her daughter at the Braintree police station following Seth’s shooting, said attorney Bryan Stevens. She did not barge into then-Chief John Polio’s office or stop an interview, he said. She recalled that police were kind, Stevens said.

“A number of them came out and reassured her everything was all right. They were very kind, very considerate,” he said.

She doesn’t know why her daughter was released, he said.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier has said Polio, or someone acting on his behalf, ordered the booking process to be stopped. Polio has denied that accusation.

Seth Bishop’s death was later ruled accidental.

Bishop, a neurobiologist, is accused of shooting to death three colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville on Feb. 12.

Keating launched an inquest into the 1986 shooting Thursday, citing as one reason the lack of cooperation from the Bishop parents.

“(Keating) is using the power of his position to beat up on people who are not charged with a crime who simply choose not to talk to his investigators,” Stevens said.

Keating spokesman David Traub said the inquest is a “non-accusatory way for a judge to look at the circumstances of a death.”

“There are significant questions that need to be answered,” he said.

One lingering question, authorities say, is why a state police report did not mention a newspaper in Amy Bishop’s bedroom that described a similar crime.

The Herald has reported that the paper was a National Enquirer with a story about the 1986 murder of actor Patrick Duffy’s parents.

Bishop’s attorney, Roy Miller, told the Herald yesterday that Bishop was a regular Enquirer reader, mostly for stories about aliens. He said she’s given him no indication she was inspired by accounts of the Duffy killings.

“She did tell me that she did read the National Enquirer at the time, but she doubts that that story was in there,” he said of the Duffy killings. “She doesn’t remember that particular story.”

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1267697844256290.xml&coll=1
Shooting victim at rehab center
Thursday, March 04, 2010
By Pat Ammons Newcomb
Times Staff Writer pat.newcomb@htimes.com

UAH prof Joseph Leahy released in good condition

Dr. Joseph Leahy, wounded in a shooting Feb. 12 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, was released in good condition from Huntsville Hospital Wednesday morning for transport to Atlanta and the Shepherd Center, which specializes in brain injuries.

Leahy has made remarkable progress since being shot during a biology faculty meeting, according a blog family members started to update friends.

Dr. Amy Bishop, an assistant professor of biology, has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of Dr. Gopi Podila, the department chair, Dr. Maria Ragland Davis and Dr. Adriel Johnson.

Bishop also has been charged with shooting Leahy, staff assistant Stephanie Monticciolo and Dr. Luis Cruz-Vera, who was not seriously wounded.

Before leaving Huntsville Hospital, Leahy had been able to stand for very brief periods and has been able to speak to family.

"Those of us who know Joe well have no doubt that this lifelong over-achiever will conquer the challenges that lay ahead," his sister-in-law, Lisa Leahy, wrote on the blog.

Monticciolo remains in Huntsville Hospital, and her family has kept a CaringBridge Web page updated with her progress. She is walking some with assistance and has begun to eat regularly.

Doctors have removed her tracheotomy tube, which has allowed her to begin speaking.

She has had some problems with blood clots, two that became dangerous pulmonary embolisms over the weekend.
"But, as she has told us several times, she's got a mission and decided to stick around to do it," her daughter, Michele wrote on the Web page. "No one can quite believe it, except, of course, those who know the will of Stephanie Monticciolo."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/03/03/layers_of_deceit_incompetence_surround_seth_bishops_death/
Globe Editorial
The Boston Globe
Layers of deceit, incompetence surround Seth Bishop’s death
March 3, 2010
NO ONE in authority spoke for 18-year-old Seth Bishop of Braintree in 1986 after he was shot to death by his sister Amy Bishop, the woman accused of killing three colleagues last month at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Someone may at last when a judicial inquest into the death gets underway in the coming weeks.
The inquest initiated by Norfolk District Attorney William Keating is the best chance to peel away the layers of deceit, incompetence, or both that surround this case. Quincy District Judge Mark Coven will be required to consider all material circumstances attending the death of Seth Bishop and, if possible, determine if he was the victim of murder, manslaughter, or any other offense.

Coven and Keating will have their hands full. The finger-pointing among Braintree Police, State Police, and members of the district attorney’s office at the time knows no bounds. The latest to weigh in is retired State Trooper Brian Howe, who led the 1986 investigation into the shooting death. But leadership was nowhere to be found near Braintree that day. Neither Howe nor any other state trooper attached to the Norfolk district attorney even bothered to respond to the death scene. And Howe would eventually close the case and rule it accidental largely on the word of Braintree police, despite his failure to review police reports and crime scene photos. And the shooting barely registered with US Representative William Delahunt, the Norfolk DA at the time.

There’s so much more. Former Braintree chief John Polio has professed he didn’t know that Bishop pointed a shotgun at his own officers after she fled her home. A normal chief would be commending his officers for disarming and arresting such a suspect. But in Braintree, Amy Bishop was released without charges and not even interviewed until 11 days after the shooting.
Did Bishop’s mother, Judith, an elected member of the Braintree town meeting, have unusual access or influence in the department? It’s a key question for the inquest.

Some might chalk the whole thing up to the incompetence of a small-town police force. But proper protocol appears to have been followed just days later by Braintree and state police when a woman was murdered in a Braintree convenience store. The inquest needs to determine what was so different about the Bishop case.

Inquests are not trials per se, but a way to determine if a crime has been committed. They are not open to the public. But the public needs answers, and especially the families of the people slain in Alabama whose loved ones might be alive today had Bishop been held accountable in 1986.

The transcripts of this inquest will be eagerly awaited by everyone concerned about what looks more each day like a monumental miscarriage of justice in Braintree.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/mostpopular/22755527/detail.html
Delahunt Calls It Quits
Long Time Rep. Says Decision Personal, Not Political
Friday, March 5, 2010
BOSTON -- Calling his time in the U.S. House Of Representatives "a rewarding and remarkable journey," Rep. Bill Delahunt said Friday that he is calling it quits, and his political career will come to a close at the end of this year.
"It is simply time for me to chart a new course, to explore opportunities both private and public that will still allow me to focus on the issues that have been my priority during my public life," Delahunt said.

Delahunt, 68, a Democrat, said his decision was personal not political.

"My decision at its core is personal, not political. It has nothing to do with the current political climate. Undoubtedly, the political landscape will continue to change over the course of the next eight months, and all of my colleagues in government at every level understand that the only constant in politics is change," Delahunt said.

Delahunt's decision to retire was the talk of Quincy, his hometown. Constituents were remembering his accomplishments over seven terms in Congress and a career in public office that has spanned four decades.

"He's done a very, very good job. I understand his decision. You get to the point where you don't want to work anymore. Especially in government," a female voter said near Quincy's town center.

If he had run for re-election, Delahunt likely would have faced a tough fight, given the recent backlash against Democrats, and the scrutiny he's been under for the Amy Bishop case in 1986 when he was the district attorney.

Bishop is the University of Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues last month. Questions have been raised about why Delahunt's office failed to prosecute Bishop for the shooting of her brother Seth 24 years ago, accepting the explanation that it was accidental.

 
Republican Scott Brown also won almost 60 percent of the vote in Delahunt's district, which stretches from the South Shore down to Cape Cod. The victory has emboldened Bay State Republicans, who are outnumbered in the local Legislature and who, until Brown's election, did not hold even one of the commonwealth's congressional seats.

Even before Delahunt's decision, Republican State Rep. Jeffrey Davis Perry had announced his intention to run against the veteran. Former State Treasurer Joe Malone, another Republican, may also run for the seat.

"He's probably made a decision that it's not his time anymore. It's probably better off that he, you know, made that decision than do something half-heartedly," said a voter.

"I know he's worked hard for Massachusetts. So, we're going to miss him," one woman said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/03/inquest_slated.html
Inquest slated for April in death of Seth Bishop
Thursday, March 11, 2020

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

The judicial inquest into the 1986 death of Seth Bishop is scheduled to take place over four days in April, a spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said this morning.

Quincy District Court Judge Mark S. Coven will conduct the proceedings from April 13 through April 16 in an effort to determine whether Amy Bishop shot her brother intentionally.

Keating initiated the inquest after Amy Bishop, now a 45-year-old biology professor at the University of Alabama, allegedly opened fire at a faculty meeting last month, killing three colleagues and injuring three others.

After the shooting rampage, details emerged about the 1986 shooting casting doubt on whether it was accidental, as authorities had initially ruled.
More...

http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/news/x1526459941/Inquest-in-Bishop-case-set-for-April-13-16


Inquest in Bishop case set for April 13-16

Thursday, March 11, 2010

<snip>

Keating is now questioning whether the fatal shooting was accidental, as police and then-District Attorney (now U. S. Rep.) William Delahunt ruled at the time.

“Judge Coven will personally conduct the inquest as stipulated in Chapter 38 of the Massachusetts General Laws,” said Traub, who noted that the inquest “may or may not occupy the full measure of time that Judge Coven has made available.”

To read state laws governing inquests, go to http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-38-toc.htm.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12151799
Preliminary hearing set for accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop Anderson
March 16, 2010

HUTNSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - The UA Huntsville shooting suspect, Amy Bishop Anderson, is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.

Bishop is accused of shooting 6 colleagues and killing three February 12th on campus at the Shelby Center.

Bishop is charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 23rd at 9:00 a.m.

Bishop's attorney, Roy Miller, said he will argue that Bishop is insane.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/13/suspicious_device_is_detonated_by_robot_in_bishops_ala_home/
‘Suspicious device’ is detonated by robot in Bishop’s Ala. home
Police had feared it was a bomb, newspaper says
March 13, 2010

Alabama police called in a bomb squad after they discovered what they described as a “suspicious device’’ yesterday at the Huntsville home of Amy Bishop, the former Massachusetts resident accused of fatally shooting three colleagues last month at the University of Alabama.

Huntsville police Sergeant Mark Roberts said the squad determined it was not an explosive, but the law enforcement activity created a stir in the neighborhood where Bishop’s husband is living with their four children. Bishop is in jail awaiting trial on capital murder charges.

Roberts said police closed down the road and evacuated nearby houses before sending a robot inside the Bishop residence to blow up the device. Roberts would not say what the device was.

The Huntsville Times reported that it was a section of PVC pipe that police feared contained explosives.

The Globe reported last month that Bishop and her husband were questioned in an attempted mail bombing of a Harvard professor in 1993.

In that case, someone mailed two pipe bombs to the Newton home of Dr. Paul Rosenberg. Rosenberg, who had ended Bishop’s employment in his laboratory weeks earlier, was not injured because the bombs did not detonate.

No one was ever charged in the case. Since the shootings in Alabama, however, the case is getting a fresh look from federal authorities, who want to make sure the investigation was conducted properly.

Yesterday’s search of Bishop’s Huntsville home was the second since since the 45-year-old biology professor was arrested in the fatal shootings at a faculty meeting Feb. Three people were killed, and three others were wounded. The first search was the day of the shootings.

Yesterday, police seized several computers and a video camera, according to The Huntsville Times. The computers had been used by Bishop’s children for school work, her lawyer told the Times.

The police activity in Alabama came one day after authorities in Massachusetts announced that a judicial inquest is scheduled to begin next month in Quincy District Court to examine the 1986 shooting death of Bishop’s brother.

Bishop killed her 18-year-old brother, Seth, with her father’s shotgun, but the shooting was ruled an accident at the time. The inquest will seek to determine whether that ruling was the proper one.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12172152
Gag order issued in Amy Bishop case
March 19, 2010

HUTNSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - WAFF 48 News first to bring you details of a gag order in the Amy Bishop case, and now we're learning more about the specifics of that order.

Dr. Amy Bishop is accused of shooting 6 colleagues and killing three on the UA Huntsville Campus February 12th.

Judge Ruth Ann Hall handed down her ruling that no one affiliated with this case--including police, prosecutors,defense attorneys, and witnesses-can make oral or written statements to any member of the news media.

That includes the character, credibility and reputation of the suspect.

Attorney Mark McDaniel says its to ensure that both sides receive a fair trial.

"It's a wise move by the judge. It won't keep media coverage from taking place because this case has national attention," said Huntsville attorney Mark McDaniel.

The gag order will not prevent information from being released as part of public record or scheduling of procedures.

Bishop is expected in court for a preliminary hearing next Tuesday.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/news/x1526462451/Former-judge-offers-perspective-on-upcoming-Bishop-inquest

Former judge offers perspective on upcoming Bishop inquest
March 12, 2010

Former Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein believes that the correct decision was made to arrange a judicial inquest into the shooting death of Seth Bishop by his sister Amy in Braintree nearly 24 years ago and the right person has been chosen to conduct it next month.

During a Feb. 25 press conference, Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating asked Judge Mark Coven, the first justice of Quincy District Court, to take a new look at the circumstances surrounding the killing of Seth Bishop, 18, by his then-20-year-old sister at their Hollis Avenue home.

“There’s no question that he (Keating) did the right thing,” Borenstein said. “This is a very strange saga.”

In the aftermath of Amy Bishop’s arrest for killing three colleagues and wounding three others at a Feb. 12 University of Alabama factory meeting, new information led Keating to question whether the fatal shooting of Seth Bishop was accidental, as police and then-District Attorney (now U. S. Rep.) William Delahunt ruled at the time.

Coven has informed Keating’s office that he has scheduled court time for April 13, 14, 15, and 16 for the inquest, Keating spokesman David Traub announced on March 11, the same day that the University of Alabama fired Bishop.

“Judge Coven will personally conduct the inquest as stipulated in Chapter 38 of the Massachusetts General Laws,” said Traub, who noted that the inquest “may or may not occupy the full measure of time that Judge Coven has made available.”

Keating has revealed that Amy Bishop was being booked at the Braintree police station for the murder of her brother when the procedure was halted and she was released from custody.

After Mayor Joseph Sullivan and Police Chief Paul Frazier handdelivered police reports about the case previously thought to have been missing to Keating’s office on Feb. 16, they “made contact with us and said that they had a small volume of additional material, including photos, from the current police command structure that they subsequently made available to us,” Traub told the Forum on Feb. 26.

Meanwhile, State Police from Keating’s office made contact with those who were involved in the initial investigation, and Keating’s statement about the interrupted booking of Bishop came from those contacts, Traub said.

Murder is the only charge that could be filed against Amy Bishop in connection with her brother’s death since the statute of limitations has run out on all other offenses.

“I am optimistic that an inquest is the best way to get to the bottom of this,” said Borenstein, a partner in the law firm of Denner Pellegrino, LLP, which has offices in Boston, Springfield, New York, and Providence. “I know Judge Coven personally, and I know of his repuation as a thoughtful, bright, respected, and experienced judge. I believe that people will have confidence in a report issued by him.”

As a judge, Borenstein presided over several high profile cases, some of which garnered national media attention, including two motions for a new trial in the Fells Acre Day Care case in 1998, the first degree murder trial of Dr. James Kartell in 2000, and the Christopher Reardon church sexual abuse case in 2001.

Borenstein, who handled civil and criminal cases in state and federal court as an attorney for 11 years prior to his appointment to the bench in 1986, never conducted an inquest, which, he emphasized, is not a trial.

“An inquest is extremely rare,” he said. “In some ways, it’s the closest thing to the European system of justice.”

In an inquest, Borenstein explained, the judge takes a more active role—for example, he or she may call witnesses and ask questions of witnesses under oath.

“The judge takes on the role of a person who says ‘Let’s get to the bottom of this,’” he said. “The judge has tremendous discretion. The judge could permit examination of a witness or could do it all by himself. The judge could even appoint an independent attorney to do the questioning.”

A witness at an inquest, which is closed to the public, can have an attorney present, but the judge can compel his or her testimony.

“Remember that the Fifth Amendment (against self-incrimination) is not absolute,” Borenstein said. “The judge could determine that it doesn’t apply in these circumstances and find a witness in contempt. Pleading the Fifth is not automatic. The judge could decide that a witness doesn’t have a Fifth Amendment privilege and must testify.”

A transcript is made of the inquest’s proceedings, and the judge typically issues a report that is made public.

“The issues raised by the Bishop case affect the public’s perception of and confidence in the justice system,” Borenstein said. “The public wants to know if everyone is treated fairly and equally.”

Charges were never brought against Bishop, a 1983 graduate of Braintree High School, who ran out of her home with a shotgun on Dec. 6, 1986 following the shooting of her brother, walked to the former Dave Dinger Ford auto shop a couple of blocks away, and demanded a car and a set of keys immediately.

Thomas Pettigrew of Quincy and Jeff Doyle of Marshfield, who worked at the shop, told police that Bishop pointed the shotgun at them before heading to where Officers Ronald Solimini and Timothy Murphy found her.

Bishop was hiding behind a parked car in the rear of Village News, holding the shotgun at waist level.

Following a standoff with Solimini and Murphy during which she was ordered three times to drop the shotgun, Bishop was arrested and brought to the police station.

Solimini’s lawyer told the Boston Globe that after Bishop arrived at the station, her mother Judith, the only witness to the shooting, demanded to speak to then-Police Chief John V. Polio.

“As he’s standing there, the mother comes roaring into the station saying ‘I want to see John V. Where’s John V.?’”said attorney Frank McGee, recounting what Solimini told him.

Moments later, according to McGee, Solimini saw Judith Bishop disappear down a hallway, and a short time later, Polio or another senior officer called to stop the booking process and allow her daughter to go home with her.

Polio, 87, told the Forum on Feb. 23 that he did not order Amy Bishop’s release and never spoke to Judith Bishop at any point subequent to this incident.

“Neither I nor anyone else acting on my behalf or under my orders instructed then Lieutenant (James) Sullivan to stop the booking process,” Polio wrote in a Feb. 22 statement. “There was no coverup.”

The retired chief said that he would let the Dec. 6, 1986 report of Sullivan to the now deceased Captain Theodore Buker speak for itself concerning the release of Amy Bishop to her mother.

“After consulting with Captain Buker and (now deceased) Captain (Peter) D’Amico, it was determined that no charges would be brought against Amy Bishop at this time,” Sullivan wrote. “With the current information, it would appear to be an accidental shooting.”

The decision to let Amy Bishop leave the police station the day her brother died particularly disturbs the public, according to Borenstein.

“We don’t know, but it looks like a backroom deal,” he said. “People want to know how the investigation was conducted that day and after that day. It does look like a determination was made (that the killing was an accident) without looking at all of the evidence.”

Keating said last month that his office still doesn’t have some physical evidence related to the case, and inconsistencies have been found in the original police reports and interviews.

For example, officers who went to the Bishops’ home after the shooting noted the position of Seth’s body alternately as face up and face down.

A crime scene photograph taken in Amy Bishop’s bedroom showed a newspaper clipping about a well-publicized murder lying next to a shotgun shell on the floor, said Keating, who declined to provide specifics about the article.

A media search of news reports, however, revealed parallel circumstances to a case that occurred a few weeks before Seth Bishop’s death when the parents of “Dallas” star Patrick Duffy were killed at their Montana tavern by two teenagers who used a shotgun and proceeded to steal a Jeep from a car dealership.

Two key questions that Borenstein hopes the inquest will answer are “What really happened here and why?” and “Was there a coverup?”

To read state laws governing inquests, go to http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-38-toc.htm.

http://www.whnt.com/news/huntsvilleandmadisoncounty/uahuntsvilleshooting/whnt-amy-bishop-anderson-preliminary-hearing,0,5870510.story
Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson Scheduled To Appear In Court Tuesday
March 19, 2010
 HUNTSVILLE, AL - Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson is headed to court next week. The woman accused of killing three of her UAHuntsville colleagues is scheduled to have her preliminary hearing Tuesday morning.

Attorneys Roy Miller and Barry Abston will represent Bishop Anderson. District Attorney Rob Broussard will be there with his team, too.

Tuesday, the judge will decide if there's enough evidence in the case to bind it over to a grand jury.

"A preliminary hearing is to determine whether or not there's probable cause a crime has been committed and that the accused committed the crime," WHNT News 19 Legal Analyst Harvey Morris said.

From there, the grand jury will decide whether to indict Bishop Anderson, or in other words, to send her to trial.

A Huntsville Police Department investigator and a UAHuntsville Police officer are listed to testify at the hearing.

Judge Ruth Ann Hall issued a gag order in Bishop Anderson's case on Thursday.

"A wise judge, and Judge Hall is a wise judge, has said look. We're not going to let anybody talk about this ... we want to be able to try this case in Madison County," Morris said.

Gag orders are often issued in order to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial.

Morris said it could take a while for the case to go to trial. He said the six judges at the Madison County Courthouse have the heaviest caseload in Alabama.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/23/alabama.amy.bishop.hearing/?hpt=T2
Ex-professor faces hearing in campus shooting
By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
March 23, 2010 9:19 a.m. EDT
Huntsville, Alabama (CNN) -- The basis for a capital murder charge against former University of Alabama professor Amy Bishop is expected to be laid out in open court Tuesday at a hearing to determine whether there's enough evidence for her to stand trial.

Bishop, 44, is accused of gunning down colleagues at a faculty meeting on February 12. The former biology professor is charged with murder and three counts of attempted murder in the shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Bishop is scheduled to appear in Madison County Circuit Court on Tuesday morning for a preliminary hearing before Judge Ruth Ann Hall. Prosecutors are expected to call police officers and perhaps other witnesses.

Under Alabama law, the case will go to a grand jury if the judge finds there is sufficient evidence to pursue the charges against Bishop.

Her court-appointed lawyer, Roy Miller, has indicated in comments to the media that the case will focus on Bishop's mental state. According to Miller, Bishop was under suicide watch in jail.

A gag order was issued Friday, and parties on both sides did not respond to requests for comment.
Survivors of the massacre said earlier that Bishop, a Harvard-trained geneticist who had recently been denied tenure at Alabama, stood up at the end of a biology department faculty meeting and started shooting.

The university identified the victims as Gopi Podila, chairman of the biological sciences department; Maria Davis, associate professor of biology; and Adriel Johnson, associate professor of biology. Three others were wounded.

Bishop was arrested as she left the building. A 9 mm handgun was found inside, on the second floor.

In the wake of the shootings, information came to light about previous run-ins with the law Bishop had. She faced criminal charges after an altercation at a Massachusetts restaurant nearly eight years ago, police said.

The police report says Bishop became furious that there was no booster seat available for her child, began screaming at the woman who had taken the last one and struck her in the head.
Authorities in Bishop's hometown of Braintree, Massachusetts, are also looking into the shooting death of her brother, Seth, in 1986. Bishop, then 20, said she accidentally shot her brother in the family's kitchen as she was trying to unload a shotgun, according to police reports.

The district attorney at the time regarded the death as accidental and declined to press charges. However, after the school shootings, the current district attorney in Braintree ordered a judge's inquest to re-examine the incident and determine whether charges are warranted.

In addition, The Boston Globe has also reported that Bishop and her husband, Jim Anderson, were questioned in the 1993 attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor.

Under Alabama law, Bishop could face the death penalty if she is convicted of capital murder.

http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12188674
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New Details Emerge in Bishop-Anderson Court Appearance

Posted: March 23, 2010 10:23 AM

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HUNTSVILLE -  Amy Bishop-Anderson appeared in court Tuesday morning for a preliminary hearing.  Judge Ruth Ann Hall found probable cause that Bishop-Anderson committed the crimes and the case will now go to a grand jury.

She's the woman charged with capital murder for allegedly shooting three of her colleagues.  She's also charged with attempted murder for shooting three other colleagues.  This happened at the Shelby Center on the campus of UA Huntsville February 12th.

Huntsville Police Department's homicide investigator Charles Gray took the stand Tuesday and shed more light on what happened that February day.  He said the deadly shootings happened during a faculty meeting on the 3rd floor of the Shelby Center.  The meeting got underway at 3:00 and the first reported 911 call came in around 3:50.  Inv. Gray testified that the three that died were sitting closest to Bishop-Anderson.  Each was shot in the head at point blank range.

The most shocking testimony he gave was about the 9 millimeter handgun allegedly used in the crime. Gray said police recovered it the women's bathroom on the 2nd floor inside a trash can.  He said they found it underneath paper towels and a jacket, which they later determined belonged to Bishop-Anderson. 

He also testified that gun had a magazine with 15 rounds.  Gray said that 6 rounds were fired, but said after further investigation they determined the gun jammed.  Police later found a second fully loaded 15 round magazine in her black bag that was left in the conference room.

The big question that has surrounded this case is where Bishop-Anderson got the gun?  Investigator Gray said through the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives they traced the gun back to a man in Troy, New Hampshire.  When ATF agents questioned the man he said James Anderson asked him to buy the 9 millimeter back in 1989.  He stated that Mr. Anderson was living in Massachusetts, which had stricter gun laws than New Hampshire and needed the gun soon because he was having problems with his neighbor.

Investigator Gray said he questioned James about the gun, but he denied purchasing it from the man and denies owning a pistol.

Investigator Gray and Huntsville Police Officer Kathy Pierce questioned Amy Bishop-Anderson over 2 hours the night of the murders.   He said that she seemed calm, intelligent and responded to all the questions they asked her and was not under the influence of drugs.    Police have combed through her computer and found a journal documenting her issues with tenure but in those documents Gray said is no evidence at this point that she was planning to carry out a malicious act.

District Attorney Rob Broussard said due to all the national media attention it has made this case more difficult.  He said at this point they will continue to investigate and get all their information ready and present this case to a grand jury in the next six months.

http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/news/local/polk/story/Lakeland-man-refuses-to-talk-about-case/-tcBJ81lX0iCdZcqXO_uog.cspx
Lakeland man refuses to talk about case
March 24, 2010
LAKELAND, FL -- A Lakeland man is tight lipped about his alleged connection to last month's fatal rampage at the University of Alabama Huntsville.

Police say Donald Proulx bought a gun more than 20 years ago that was used in the shooting that left three people dead and three wounded.

In an email to the Associated Press, Proulx says he has been told not to comment on the matter and directed questions to law enforcement.

This week in court, a police investigator said Proulx bought the gun in New Hampshire in 1989 for the husband of the woman charged in the shooting. The investigator said the husband wanted the weapon because of problems with a neighbor.

Former professor Amy Bishop is the accused shooter.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/03/uah_shooting_rampage_update_ma.html
UAH shooting rampage update: Man who bought gun used by Bishop won't talk
March 24, 2010

LAKELAND, Fla. -- A man who police say bought a gun more than 20 years ago that was used last month in a fatal Alabama university rampage is declining to comment on his role.

Donald Proulx  e-mailed The Associated Press today to say he had been told not to discuss the matter. He referred questions to law enforcement.

A police investigator told an Alabama court Tuesday that the gun was bought by Proulx in New Hampshire in 1989 for the husband of the woman charged in the Alabama shooting. The investigator said the husband, James Anderson, wanted the gun because of problems with a neighbor.

Former professor Amy Bishop is charged with capital murder in the shooting at the University of Alabama Huntsville that left 3 people dead and 3 wounded.

Bishop made her first public court appearance Tuesday wearing the jailhouse red scrubs of a "high-risk" inmate as she listened to a police witness describe the capital murder case against her.

District Judge Ruth Ann Hall ruled at the end of the 25-minute preliminary hearing that Bishop should remain in custody without bond and that her case should be presented to a grand jury in the slaying of three Biology Department faculty members.

 ::MonkeyTears:: ::MonkeyTears:: ::MonkeyTears::

Muffy if you are still around, could you meet me in Musing? I really need to talk to someone who understands........ ::MonkeyAngel::

Thanks in advance if you can ::HelloKitty::

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-stephanie-monticciolo-released-032910,0,4077225.story
UAHuntsville Staff Member Shot In February Released From Hospital
March 29, 2010
(http://www.whnt.com/media/alternatethumbnails/story/2010-03/52988277-29115343.jpg)
February 12 shooting at UAHuntsville is now out of the hospital. University staff member Stephanie Monticciolo is now recovering at home.

That's according an entry posted on her blog Sunday. That entry also says Monticciolo continues to heal, and that she is making progress with each passing day.

Dr. Joseph Leahy was also badly hurt in the February shooting. He is recovering at a rehabilitation center in Atlanta. The latest entry on his blog says his level of awareness has greatly improved. He's been able to feed himself pudding and applesauce and is also able to brush his teeth.

A third person injured in the shooting, Dr. Luis Cruz-Vera, was released from the hospital back in February.

The accused shooter, Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson, was in court last week for her preliminary hearing. A judge ruled there is enough evidence to keep her behind bars. Her case will now go to a Madison County grand jury, likely in about six months.

http://www2.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/huntsville_ala._husband_of_uah_suspect_says_computers_seized/138350/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. : Husband Of UAH Suspect Says Computers Seized
March 16, 2010

(AP) - The husband of Huntsville shooting suspect Amy Bishop said police took his family’s computers during a search of the family’s home.
    Jim Anderson told WAFF-TV that police weren’t satisfied with having his wife’s computer. He said they took his computer and his girls’ computers during the search Friday. Police also blew up a piece of PVC pipe that turned out to be nothing dangerous.
    Bishop is accused of killing three colleagues and wounding three others during a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. No one else has been charged in the case.
    —-

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/15/bishops_mother_again_testifies_on_sons_death/
Bishop’s mother again testifies on son’s death
One of 9 at inquest on ’86 shooting and aftermath
Thursday, April 15, 2010

QUINCY — Amy Bishop’s mother testified for the second time yesterday in a judicial inquest into the 1986 shooting of her 18-year-old son by her daughter, a death that was initially declared an accident but has come under renewed scrutiny since Bishop allegedly gunned down three people in Alabama in February.
Judith Bishop, who was in the room when Amy Bishop shot her brother, Seth, provided testimony on Tuesday, the first day of the inquest, and then returned yesterday afternoon to testify again, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proceedings are closed to the public.

Afterward, court officers whisked her and her lawyer out of the courthouse through a back door. Judith Bishop declined to speak with reporters before driving away. She and her husband, Samuel, have insisted through their lawyer that the death of their son at the hands of their daughter was a tragic accident.

Judith Bishop was among the last of nine witnesses seen leaving the courthouse after testifying during the second day of the inquest yesterday. The others included Brian L. Howe, a retired state trooper whose report to prosecutors in 1986 concluded the shooting was accidental; John V. Polio, the former Braintree police chief; and his wife, Virginia, who was working for the Police Department in an administrative capacity at the time of the Bishop shooting. All declined to discuss their testimony as they left the court house.

“We were told not to discuss it by the judge, and I abide by the law,’’ John Polio said. “Otherwise, I would have plenty to say.’’

Contradictory reports about the 1986 shooting — and the investigation that followed it — have surfaced since Amy Bishop, 45, allegedly opened fire at a faculty meeting Feb. 12 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The goal of the inquest is to review the 1986 shooting and determine if it was an accident, as investigators initially ruled.

According to police reports, Amy Bishop told police at the time of her brother’s death that she had taken her father’s shotgun and loaded it, but couldn’t figure out how to unload the weapon. When she went to ask for help, Bishop told police, the gun accidentally went off, striking her brother in the chest. She then fled the Bishop home, tried to commandeer a car at gunpoint from an auto dealership, and trained the shotgun on police, who eventually persuaded her to drop the weapon, the reports say. Bishop was released within hours and did not face charges.

Among the first to testify yesterday were two workers from the former Dave Dinger Ford in Braintree, who have said they were confronted by a wild-eyed Amy Bishop carrying a shotgun on Dec. 6, 1986.

One of the workers, Thomas Pettigrew, told reporters outside the courthouse yesterday that his thoughts kept returning to the people killed in Huntsville.

“Let’s just not forget the people in Alabama, and Seth,’’ Pettigrew said. “This should be more about them than me or anyone else.’’

His former co-worker, Jeff Doyle, declined yesterday to discuss his version of events but said he hoped this week’s inquest would provide closure in the case.

“I just hope maybe there’s a few more answers to some questions that as of right now, I think, are pretty much unanswered,’’ he said.

The inquest is expected to continue at least through today. Still to offer testimony are US Representative William Delahunt, who was Norfolk district attorney when the shooting occurred, and his then-assistant, John Kivlan. It’s unclear if Delahunt will testify under oath at the courthouse or be interviewed by State Police investigators who will relay his comments to Judge Mark S. Coven, who is conducting the inquest.

Delahunt has previously said he had no direct knowledge of the case and simply followed Kivlan’s recommendation that the case be closed without charges. Kivlan has said he relied on Howe, the State Police detective assigned to Delahunt’s office. Howe has said he relied on Braintree police, who did not provide him with key police reports in the case.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/14/delahunt_slated_as_witness_in_bishop_inquest/
Delahunt slated as witness in Bishop inquest
In first day, officers testify about ’86 killing

(http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2010/04/13/1271216967_3477/300h.jpg)
The type of shotgun Amy Bishop used in 1986 was taken into a Quincy courtroom yesterday. (Yoon S. Byun/ Globe Staff)

QUINCY — US Representative William Delahunt is scheduled to offer testimony this week in the judicial inquest of the shooting death of 18-year-old Seth Bishop in 1986, when Delahunt was Norfolk district attorney and did not press charges in the case, according to two people briefed on the inquest.
It is unclear whether Delahunt will testify under oath in a courtroom — unusual for a sitting congressman — or be interviewed by State Police detectives who would relay his comments to Quincy District Court Judge Mark S. Coven, who is conducting the inquest. Those briefed on the inquest spoke on condition of anonymity because the proceedings are not open to the public.

During the first day of testimony yester day, several police officers on duty the day Seth Bishop was shot by his 21-year-old sister, Amy, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse, making their first public comments about the shooting. One said that he believed Bishop should have been charged in the case and that the investigation, which concluded the shooting was accidental, was not handled properly by Braintree police officials, Delahunt and his staff, and a State Police detective assigned to Delahunt’s office.

“They just didn’t seem to — nothing seemed to go right,’’ former Braintree officer Kenneth Brady said as he left the courthouse. “We just felt that it should have been handled differently.’’

Delahunt has previously said he had no direct knowledge of the case and simply followed the recommendation of his assistant, John Kivlan, that the case be closed without charges. Kivlan has said he relied on the State Police detective, Brian L. Howe, who has said he relied on Braintree police, who did not provide him with key police reports in the case.

Delahunt’s chief of staff, Mark Forest, said the congressman is cooperating with authorities conducting the inquest.

“Congressman Delahunt thinks it important to find the truth and is happy to cooperate in the inquest,’’ Forest said.

Amy Bishop, 45, is now accused of killing three colleagues and injuring three others in a shooting rampage at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in February.

Questions — and contradictory reports — that have surfaced since then about exactly what happened in the shooting of her brother some 24 years ago prompted the inquest, which is scheduled to run at least through tomorrow.

Among the witnesses slated to appear today are John V. Polio, the Braintree police chief at the time of the shooting; Howe; and Kivlan, according to those briefed on the inquest.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Robert Nelson, who is questioning witnesses in the proceedings, said eight people are scheduled to testify today and another is slated tomorrow. He said the proceedings went more quickly yesterday than he expected.
The judge asked some questions in areas that he was interested in, but I asked most of the questions,’’ he said. “Basically, we’re just trying to figure out what happened.’’
Inquests are closed-door proceedings conducted by a judge, who is responsible under state law for examining evidence, observing and conducting sworn testimony of witnesses, and reaching determinations about how a death occurred and whether charges should result. Judges then issue a report about their findings. Prosecutors decide whether to press charges.

In this case, the only charge for which the statute of limitations has not expired is homicide.

Amy Bishop, who faces a capital murder charge in the Alabama shootings, is being held in that state and so was not present at yesterday’s inquest.

Outside the courtroom in Quincy yesterday, security was tight, with a court officer locking and unlocking the courtroom door each time a witness entered or left. All that could be heard outside Jury Room A was the repeated gnashing sound of a 12-gauge shotgun. People inside the courtroom later said a witness demonstrated the use of a pump-action Mossberg 500A, the type of weapon that killed Seth Bishop.

According to police reports, Amy Bishop told police at the time of the shooting that she had taken her father’s shotgun and loaded it, but couldn’t figure out how to unload the weapon. When she went to ask for help, Bishop told police, the gun accidentally went off, striking her brother in the chest. She then fled the Bishop home, tried to commandeer a car at gunpoint from an auto dealership, and trained the shotgun on police, who eventually persuaded her to drop the weapon, the reports say. Bishop was released within hours and never faced charges.

Among the first witnesses to testify yesterday were Bishop’s parents, Judith and Sam, according to former Braintree officers who were sequestered with them in a holding room. The couple slipped in and out of the courtroom without speaking to reporters. Judith Bishop was in the room when her daughter shot her son, according to police reports.

Brady, the Braintree police officer, told reporters that he drove Judith Bishop to the Braintree police station after the shooting and she asked to speak with the chief, who was not at the station. Brady said he believed she then called the chief, either on a pay phone in the lobby or on a phone at the station’s front desk.

Within minutes, Brady said, a clerk told him to have the officer who was then booking Amy Bishop on charges to call another supervisor, Captain Peter D’Amico.

“D’Amico told him not to book her,’’ he said.

Brady also said State Police did not show up at the scene, where he and other officers had to process evidence — collect shell casings and take photographs — on their own.

“Generally, they show up at something like that,’’ he said.

Another former officer who testified yesterday defended investigators’ handling of the case, and said he still believes the shooting was accidental, partly because he couldn’t fathom a sibling shooting deliberately.

“Nobody would do something like that,’’ said retired officer Timothy Murphy, who handcuffed Amy Bishop after her standoff with Braintree police.

He said investigators acted properly in the probe.

“Everything that was supposed to be done was done,’’ he said. “It was handled very professionally.’’

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/cops_and_courts/x1195009516/Before-UAH-shooting-Amy-Bishop-already-a-world-away-from-her-roots
Before Alabama shooting, Amy Bishop was far from her roots in Braintree
May 1, 2010


HUNTSVILLE, Ala —

Years before that fateful Friday in February, Amy Bishop called a different place to call home.

The southeast Huntsville subdivision where Bishop, her husband James Anderson and their children moved in 2003 is very different from the leafy street lined with Victorian-era homes near Braintree Square where Bishop grew up.

The lots on McDowling Drive and adjoining streets are large and sunny, unlike those of the tidy, well preserved old houses of Hollis Avenue.

Developed in the 1960s and ’70s, the McDowling Drive neighborhood is filled with two-story frame houses like Bishop’s, along with brick ranches and the occasional faux Tudor and stucco exterior – the Sun Belt homes of working families and retirees.

Opposite the Bishop home is Scarlett O'Hara Circle, named for the heroine of Margaret Mitchell's novel ‘‘Gone With The Wind.’’

The former Bishop home on Hollis Avenue is just a short walk from Braintree Square. McDowling Drive is about as far south as you can go and still be in the city, with the ridge of Green Mountain just out of sight beyond the tree line.

Bishop's Huntsville home is as far from the University of Alabama-Huntsville campus, where she taught biology, as Braintree is from Boston.

For all the differences, the 45-year-old biology professor's neighbors are in much the same mood these days as those in Braintree were in 1986, after Bishop shot her younger brother Seth Bishop to death.

In February, shot six of her colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, killing three.

Longtime residents like Faye Chassay of adjoining Green View Drive are still shocked by the campus killings and still trying to cope with seeing a side of Bishop that no one suspected was there.

‘‘I had trouble thinking about anything else for a couple of days,’’ Chassay said of Bishop's alleged murder of three of her colleagues on Feb. 12.

Another Green View resident said he and others rarely saw Bishop or her husband. "We pretty much keep to our own business,’’ he said. But they never imagined her doing such a thing, either.

Chassay, who lives a block from the Bishop home, was among the few who had any personal contact with her. About a year ago she asked to talk with Bishop when one of the children tipped over her trash barrel. Chassay and Bishop shared a Coke and chatted for 45 minutes.

‘‘It was very normal,’’ the retired FBI clerk recalled.

Chassay was quickly impressed by Bishop's intelligence – though she thought it odd that Bishop told her right away that she had a doctoral degree.

While she and everyone else await a murder indictment for the campus murders, neighbors and people across Huntsville are following reports from Massachusetts about the Seth Bishop shooting and Quincy District Court Judge Mark Coven's inquest with equal intensity.

‘‘If that case hadn't been swept under the rug, this might not have happened,’’ one Huntsville neighbor said of the UAH shootings.

An indictment could be months away. Madison District Attorney Robert Broussard couldn't be reached for comment on Friday. With all parties under a gag order, no one else can say much about the case.

Bishop's attorney, Roy Miller of Huntsville, says she is off a suicide watch and has ‘‘good days and bad days’’ as a regular inmate in the Huntsville-Madison County Metro Jail.

Miller and Deputy Sheriff Chris Stephens couldn’t provide details about Bishop's activities, but Stephens said female inmates typically live dorm-style, with as many as 60 in a unit. (The jail currently has about 150 female inmates and some 900 male inmates.)

Inmates like Bishop get at least an hour of exercise each day, and are allowed 15-minute visits two days a week from family members or others who are on an approved visitor list. Since the jail is a short-term facility, Stephens said there are no counseling or other programs – only a jail ministry. Inmates have limited access to reading material.

Sometime this summer, Bishop and all other inmates will be transferred to a new $80 million jail adjacent to the current facility. The new jail is only three miles from the UAH campus – and a world away from both Braintree and McDowling Drive.

This is an older article, but it has some interesting bit of information:

http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12305512
Amy Bishop Anderson - What's Next
April 13, 2010

With the inquest into Seth Bishop's death underway in New England, folks in the Valley are wondering what's next for Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson's case here in Huntsville.

According to Huntsville Police, they're just waiting for the trial. The investigation into the shooting is complete, and all evidence has been turned over to the District Attorney's office for a grand jury hearing.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bishop-Anderson has been moved from solitary confinement into general jail population. We're told she's only been visited by her family once since her February 12th arrest.

 

http://clintonherald.com/local/x1414099483/Injured-professor-with-local-ties-returns-home
Injured professor with local ties returns home
Joseph Leahy was shot during a meeting at the University of Alabama Hunstville
May 13, 2010

MADISON, Ala. — A Clinton-born professor, critically injured when a colleague allegedly opened fire during a February faculty meeting at the University of Alabama Huntsville, has returned home from the hospital.

Dr. Joseph G. Leahy, 50, a biology professor since 1997 in Huntsville, Ala., was allowed to return home last month to his home in Madison, Ala.

Leahy’s cousin, Albany, Ill., resident Karlyn Lemke, said in an interview Wednesday that Leahy has physical therapy and more surgeries ahead, but that he’s eager to return to teaching.

“He’s doing amazingly well, considering,” said Lemke. “He wants to go back to work really bad. He’s actually been over to the university and wants to do some work. He’s ready.”

Leahy and two other faculty members were wounded – and three more were killed – when fellow biology professor Dr. Amy Bishop allegedly pulled out a handgun and began shooting during a faculty meeting Feb. 12 at the university.

Bishop, who was arrested minutes after the shooting, had been denied tenure at the university.

Leahy was shot once, with the bullet entering the top of his head and severing the optical nerve to his right eye before lodging in his neck. The professor also sustained fractures to his skull and a shattered jaw when he fell.

Lemke said Leahy has recovered much faster than anyone expected, adding that his greatest physical hurdle ahead will be coping with permanent vision loss in his right eye and weakened vision in his left eye from his brain injuries.

She said the professor has returned to his son’s track meets and has become strong enough to take walks around his neighborhood, although no timeline has been set for him to return to work.

“He does not remember anything about the shooting, but he absolutely wants to know everything,” said Lemke. “He’s devastated about the loss of his colleagues, and stunned because he was one of Amy Bishop’s supporters for tenure.”

Leahy, a graduate of the University of Ohio, is a UAH researcher in the areas of environmental microbiology and biotechnology, and microbial evolution.

He is married and has two sons. His parents Jackie and Phillip Leahy, who traveled from central Ohio to be with their son at the hospital, both attended Clinton High School.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12484862
(Video)
UAH student dedicates graduation to slain professors
May 14, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF)- This weekend is full of pomp and circumstance for graduates of UA-Huntsville. One student is dedicating his graduation and future success to 2 of the professors who were gunned down during a faculty meeting.

Andrew Adrian graduates Saturday with a degree in Biology.

He credits his success to a mentor who won't see him get his diploma.

"Dr. Podila was a great guy. He got me the job in the greenhouse. I've been doing that the past 2 years," said Adrian.

Dr. Gopi Podila was one of three professors shot and killed during a faculty meeting in February.

Another of Adrian's professors, Dr. Maria Davis, died that day too.

"She went above and beyond to help people out. Its really sad that she's gone," said Adrian.

Adrian is dedicating his graduation to both professors.

"They have had a phenomenal impact on my life," said Adrian.

They've also impacted the lives of other students in the biology department.

Adrian said their absence felt everyday.

"People's research has been dramatically impacted, people's personal lives has been impacted. There's a lot of grief in the biology department still," said Adrian.

Amy Bishop Anderson, who Adrian had some contact with in the biology department, is charged with their murders.

"It's been a gruesome experience.  A lot of the teachers are thinking about going other places--having to pick up the pieces of the other professors," said Adrian.

Adrian said it will take time for the campus to heal, but now, he's trying to focus on something positive-- graduation and an upcoming fellowship.

A future, which he said, was made possible by 2 caring instructors.

"These are the people who got me here, these are the people, who are not here, that got me here," said Adrian.

Adrian graduates Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

©2010 WAFF. All rights reserved.

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-massachusetts-inquest-amy-bishop-052510,0,7048228.story
(video)
Massachusetts Judge Makes Decision In Amy Bishop's Inquest, Records Sealed
Decision not made public; documents impounded until higher court makes decision
May 26, 2010

UINCY, Mass. - After more than a month, a judge has made a decision in the Massachusetts inquest of Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson. The inquest into the death of Bishop's brother, Seth, has been finalized.

However, the documents have been turned over to the Superior Court and have been impounded. That means the findings of the inquest will not yet be made public.

The Norfolk County District Attorney now has two options. If the judge determined probable cause existed -- that Bishop murdered her brother, the DA can seek an indictment in the case.
On the other hand, experts say there is a huge burden to overcome, in that Amy Bishop's mother, Judy, was the only eyewitness to her son's death. She testified during the inquest, and it's possible the judge may rule that it was accidental.

Here's the statement from the trial court and district attorney about the inquest.*

Massachusetts authorities held the inquest hearing last month to hear from witnesses and investigators who were involved in the 1986 case. After her arrest, Amy Bishop was released to her mother without being charged. Many people, including police who worked the case, want to know why things were handled this way.

Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson is still in the Madison County Jail, accused of shooting six people on the campus of UAHuntsville back in February. Three of them died.
***********************************

*
http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-joint-statement-quincy-massachusetts-inquest,0,5205609.story
Read It: Joint Statement Of The Trial Court & Norfolk District Attorney's Office
May 26, 2010

QUINCY, MA - The following is a joint statement of the trial court and the Norfolk District Attorney's Office:

"The report of the inquest into the death of Seth Bishop has been finalized and delivered, according to statute, to the Norfolk Superior Court. All documents at the Quincy District Court and the Norfolk Superior Court are impounded by order of the Superior Court," said Joan Kenney, spokeswoman for the Trial Court.

David Traub, spokesman for the Norfolk District Attorney's Office stated:
"According to case law: Upon completion of the inquest, the inquest documents shall remain impounded until such a time as (a). The District Attorney shall file with the appropriate clerk of the Superior Court a written certificate that no prosecution is proposed, or (b) if it shall appear that an indictment has been sought and not returned, or (c) if trial of the persons named in the report as responsible for the decedent's death shall have been completed, or (d) if a judge of the Superior Court shall determine that no criminal trial is likely, then upon order of the Superior Court, the report and transcript shall be opened forthwith to the public examination." (Mass. 1969 Kennedy v. Justice of Dis. Court of Dukes County, 356 Mass 367, 252 N.E. 2d 201)

http://www.patriotledger.com/features/x88774942/Bishop-inquest-finalized-impounded
Amy Bishop inquest is over but judge keeps it secret for now
Posted May 25, 2010, Updated May 26, 2010

QUINCY —

An inquest report by Judge Mark Coven into the 1986 death of Seth Bishop in Braintree has been finalized and ordered impounded.

The report was delivered on Tuesday to Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Joan Kenney, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Trial Court, said.

The report’s filing comes six weeks after a three-day inquest was held in Quincy District Court into the shooting 23 years ago, which Braintree police determined to be accidental.

The shooter, Amy Bishop, now faces capital murder charges in Alabama for allegedly gunning down six colleagues on the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus in February, killing three.

Following Bishop’s arrest, Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier raised questions about the handling of the 1986 investigation, which led to a review by Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating and, ultimately, the inquest.

In calling on Judge Coven to hold the inquest, Keating said investigators had found numerous inconsistencies in reviewing original records and conducting interviews. Evidence and police records were believed to be missing. And at least one Braintree police officer recalled that Amy Bishop, then 21, was abruptly freed while being booked for murder after officers received a phone call from then-Police Chief John V. Polio.

Inquests are relatively rare. Held behind closed doors, the proceeding is a fact-finding tool that lets a judge determine if a person’s death resulted from a crime.

Murder is the only charge that prosecutors could file this many years later against Bishop. And Coven’s findings are likely to play a significant role in whether Keating opts to present the case to a grand jury.

A joint statement from the Trial Court and Keating’s office said Coven’s findings will remain under seal until a decision not to file criminal charges against Bishop is made or, in the case of a grand jury indictment, a criminal trial has concluded.

“One way or the other, it becomes public,” David Traub, spokesman for Keating, said.

In explaining the rules governing when an inquest report may be made public, the joint statement cited as case law the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling in the 1969 case of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy versus the Justice of the District Court of Dukes County.

If they had handled her brother's shooting properly, the UAH tragedy would never have happened.

My daughter is a student at UAH, and some of her friends had Dr.Bishop for their biology classes. When they heard that there had been a shooting....she was the first one they thought of as being the shooter way before her name was released. Not one was surprised to find out their suspicions were correct.
The kids knew she was unbalanced, and a lot of them had complained about her. She was difficult in the classroom, and most kids tried to avoid taking a class with her if possible. A couple of my daughter's friends thought she was scary.
On the other hand...the students were very happy with Dr. Leahy, and the other 2 professors that died. Dr, Leahy is especially well liked on campus, and he's a very good teacher. I hope he makes it back to class soon, because he's been sorely missed. I'm glad he doesn't remember the shooting....that's a blessing, at least. It may spare him some additional heartache.

The whole tragedy has been hard on the students and faculty. I can't imagine what the victims' families have had to endure. I know a guy who was working down the hall from the room where the shooting took place, and he has had a very difficult time with the loss of his co-workers, and with the loss of his sense of safety, and with what he saw and heard that day. He has been diagnosed with PTSD. He's not the only one, either.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100616/ap_on_re_us/us_ala_university_shooting
Ala. prof charged in brother's 1986 shooting death

  By BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press Writer Bob Salsberg, Associated Press Writer   – 2 mins ago

CANTON, Mass. – A biology professor charged with killing three of her colleagues at an Alabama university has been indicted in the 1986 shooting death of her brother in Massachusetts, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Amy Bishop, 45, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 18-year-old brother, Seth, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said.

Authorities had originally ruled her brother's shooting an accident, but they reopened the case after Bishop was charged in February with gunning down six of her colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, killing three.

Keating said he did not understand why charges were never brought against Amy Bishop.

"I can't give you any explanations, I can't give you excuses, because there are none," he said.

Bishop had told police who investigated her brother's death that she accidentally shot him while trying to unload her father's 12-gauge shotgun in the family's Braintree home. Her mother, Judith, the only witness to the shooting, confirmed her daughter's account to police.

But after Bishop was charged in the Alabama shootings, authorities began reinvestigating Seth Bishop's death.
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, who was then the Norfolk County district attorney, said that Braintree police never told anyone in his office that after Bishop shot her brother, she tried to commandeer a getaway car at gunpoint at a local car dealership, then refused to drop her gun until officers ordered her to do so repeatedly. Those events were described in Braintree police reports but not in a report written by a state police detective assigned to the district attorney's office.

Investigators looking at an old crime scene photo from her brother's shooting discovered a newspaper article about the 1986 killings of actor Patrick Duffy's parents. The clipping, which was in Bishop's bedroom, described how a teenager shot the "Dallas" star's parents with a 12-gauge shotgun and stole a getaway car from an auto dealership.

Keating ordered an inquest, which was held in April. Nineteen witnesses, including Bishop's parents, testified before Quincy District Court Judge Mark Coven during the closed-door inquest. A grand jury heard evidence this month.

"What we're doing in this is being the voice of Seth Bishop," Keating said of the indictment. "We're doing our job, but there's no satisfaction when this is built on tragedy and more tragedy."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/06/hold_hold_hold_2.html
Amy Bishop charged with murder for 1986 shooting of her brother
June 16, 2010
CANTON -- Amy Bishop has been charged with murder for the 1986 shotgun slaying of her 18-year-old brother in their Braintree home, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said this afternoon.

"The grand jury has indicted Amy Bishop for murder in the first degree,'' Keating told reporters. "Here in Massachusetts, we had evidence of a murder. We proceeded with that, as we should have."
The slaying of Seth Bishop was declared an accident by Norfolk County authorities at the time. But questions were raised about the investigation after Bishop, a college professor, was charged in February in a shooting rampage at the University of Alabama Huntsville. Three of Bishops' colleagues were fatally shot and three wounded in that case.

Keating said an indictment warrant has been lodged with Alabama authorities. He indicated that he would give the Alabama triple murder case priority. Asked whether Bishop would ever be tried in Massachusetts for murder, Keating said, "You never know.''

No charges against anyone else are expected from grand jury.

"With what we know right now, we do not have enough to sustain that," Keating said, noting that a number of witnesses are dead, including the Braintree police captain who oversaw the investigation.

Former Braintree police chief John V. Polio, who ran the department when Bishop killed her brother, said the murder indictment against Bishop "does not convince me in any way that she's absolutely guilty. I'll stick right with the innocent unless proven guilty.''

Polio, who has been severely criticized by his former law enforcement colleagues, said there were too many unanswered questions and it remained unclear to him whether Bishop accidentally or intentionally killed her brother.

"I don't question myself one bit,'' Polio said during a telephone interview this afternoon. "I did absolutely the right thing because when I took it for granted that (reports) were sent over to the DA's office when in fact there was a lack of communication that I was unaware of. I did nothing that I would change.''

Polio defended his handling of the original investigation and said it was only when new details surfaced recently that he learned that Braintree police reports weren't shared with the district attorney's office at the time.

In a separate telephone interview, Bishop's father-in-law, Jim Anderson Sr., who lives in a suburb of Montgomery, Ala., said in a telephone interview today that he wished justice had been done back in 1986.

"We lost a talented young man, a violinist,'' said Anderson, referring to Seth Bishop. "If justice had prevailed when he was shot and law enforcement had handled it correctly, Amy would have been able to either get criminally charged or get help, one or the other.''

Shortly after the Alabama shootings, Keating launched a review of the Braintree slaying and concluded that Bishop should have been charged at the time with assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.

Keating also found that police reports, along with crime scene photos, suggested Bishop may have intentionally shot her brother. One photo of her bedroom, where she had loaded the 12-gauge shotgun, showed a National Enquirer article chronicling actions similar to Bishop's that day. The article reported that a teenager wielding a 12-gauge shotgun killed the parents of actor Patrick Duffy, who played Bobby Ewing on the television show, "Dallas," and then commandeered a getaway car at gunpoint from an auto dealership.

Keating requested a judicial inquest to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to warrant charges. Quincy District Court Judge Mark S. Coven conducted the inquest, hearing testimony from 19 witnesses over three days during the closed-door proceedings in April. Last month, Coven provided a report to Keating, who said it would remain sealed until he decided whether to pursue charges.

Bishop's mother, Judith, told police decades ago that she was in the room when her 21-year-old daughter accidentally shot her son.

Amy Bishop told police she took her father's shotgun on Dec. 6, 1986, loaded it and fired a shot in her bedroom, then went downstairs to the kitchen and shot her brother in the chest. She said she accidentally shot him while trying to figure how to unload the shotgun.

According to police reports from 1986, Bishop then fled the home, tried to commandeer a car at gunpoint from a Braintree auto dealership, and trained the gun on police, who eventually persuaded her to drop the weapon. Bishop was released within hours and did not face charges.

Keating said today that Amy Bishop threatened two civilians and a police officer with the shotgun. However, he said, the statute of limitations on possible charges for those three people -- assault and battery with a dangerous weapon -- expired in 1992.

To read the Globe's coverage of the twists and turns in the case, click here.

Seth Bishop graduated from Braintree High School in 1986 and was a freshman at Northeastern University studying electrical engineering. He was also an accomplished violinst.

Amy Bishop graduated from Northeastern University, earned a doctorate in genetics at Harvard University then worked in labs at Boston hospitals. In 2003, she moved to Alabama with her husband Jim Anderson Jr., and their four children.

http://www2.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/amy_bishops_parents_criticize_indictment/160708/
Amy Bishop’s parents criticize indictment
The Associated Press
Published: June 17, 2010
BOSTON (AP) - The parents of Amy Bishop say the indictment of their daughter on a first-degree murder charge in Massachusetts was the result of a “prejudicial, biased” review of the 1986 death of their son, Seth.
 
In a sharply-worded statement released by their attorney, Bryan Stevens, Judith and Sam Bishop said the investigation revealed no new evidence that Seth Bishop’s fatal shooting in the family’s Braintree home was anything other than an accident.
 
The Bishops said they could never explain or understand the events in Alabama, where Amy Bishop is charged with shooting six university colleagues, killing three.
 
But they also said the review that led to Wednesday’s grand jury indictment was “an enormous waste of public resources” and stemmed from finger pointing between past and present police officers and prosecutors.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20100617/news/100619679&tc=yahoo
Bishop lawyer says Boston case may help defense
The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 12:58 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 12:58 p.m.
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — The murder charge brought against Amy Bishop for the 1986 shooting death of her brother in Massachusetts will definitely be used in any insanity defense for the killing of three university colleagues in Alabama, her attorney said Thursday.
Roy Miller said the killing of her 18-year-old brother Seth would play a role if the defense follows through with its initial plan to claim that the biology professor is mentally ill.

"If we claim a defense of insanity, then her whole life history comes in, including the killing of her brother. Her life becomes an open book then," Miller told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Miller did not elaborate on how the Boston indictment, announced Wednesday, would be used in an insanity defense.

District Attorney Robert Broussard in Huntsville said earlier her indictment could aid the murder case against her in the February shooting rampage that killed three biology department colleagues and wounded three others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He said that if a mental illness defense is raised, the prosecution can bring out evidence from her entire life to rebut it.

The killing of her brother at the family's suburban Boston home initially was ruled accidental. But after Bishop was arrested in the Alabama shootings, authorities in Massachusetts decided to reopen the case.
In announcing the indictment, prosecutors said police failed to share important evidence that would have pointed to a homicide, not an accidental shooting as Bishop and her mother claimed. Evidence that surfaced in the reopened investigation included an alleged carjacking attempt by Bishop after she fled the shooting scene.
Bishop's parents called the indictment the result of a "prejudicial, biased" review of their son's death.

In a sharply-worded statement released by their attorney, Bryan Stevens, Judith and Sam Bishop said the review that led to the grand jury indictment was "an enormous waste of public resources."

"Despite all the finger-pointing among local police, state police, and the District Attorney's Office, there is no evidence that Seth's death was not an accident," the Bishops said.

David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney William Keating, declined to comment except to say that the inquest was conducted by an independent judge and that a grand jury made up of citizens returned the indictment against Bishop.

Miller said Bishop could be sent to Massachusetts for prosecution, but it's unlikely. "I don't ever see her being released to Massachusetts, certainly not in the reasonable, foreseeable future," said Miller.

Broussard has said a grand jury would likely consider charges against Bishop by late summer

http://www.telegram.com/article/20100619/NEWS/100619674/1116
Saturday, June 19, 2010

Amy Bishop tries to commit suicide after new indictment
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Add a comment

Amy Bishop tried to commit suicide yesterday in an Alabama jail where she has been held while awaiting trial for allegedly killing three colleagues and wounding three others during a shooting rampage in February at the University of Alabama Huntsville, according to a family member and a person briefed on the incident.

The attempt to kill herself came after Bishop had been told that a Norfolk County grand jury had indicted her in Massachusetts on a first-degree murder charge in the 1986 shotgun slaying of her 18-year-old brother in their Braintree home.

Bishop's mother-in-law, Sandra Anderson, who lives in a suburb of Montgomery, Ala., said she first learned of Bishop's suicide attempt from a reporter who called her at home yesterday afternoon. She said she spoke briefly afterward with her son, Jim Anderson Jr., who is married to Bishop, and he confirmed it was true.

She said her son was “not doing well'' and declined to comment further.
Bishop's attempted suicide was first reported by television station WHNT in Alabama, which said she was taken to Huntsville Hospital for treatment early yesterday, then turned over to authorities and brought back to the Huntsville/Madison County Metro Jail. The suicide attempt was confirmed to the Globe by a person who was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to speak about it.

The Huntsville Times, citing anonymous sources, reported last night that Bishop cut one or both of her wrists and left a letter to her husband. Authorities at the jail could not be reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for Huntsville Hospital said, “We cannot confirm or deny that she was a patient at our hospital.''

Huntsville lawyer Roy W. Miller, who represents Bishop in the Alabama case, did not return repeated telephone calls yesterday.

Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating announced Wednesday that Bishop, 45, had been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in the Dec. 6, 1986, slaying of her brother, Seth.

The shooting had initially been ruled an accident by authorities. Keating reexamined the case after Bishop was charged with the Alabama slayings. He concluded in February that evidence that had not been shared with prosecutors after the 1986 shooting suggested Bishop intentionally killed her brother.

Bryan J. Stevens, a Quincy lawyer who represents Bishop's parents, Judith and Sam Bishop of Ipswich, said yesterday that he did not know whether Amy Bishop made any statements after her indictment in her brother's slaying.

But he added, “I don't think there's any doubt that she considered it to be an accident, and that's what the family has believed for 23 years.''

He added: “Amy and her brother were very close. There was no animosity at all between them. There's no reason at all she'd want to kill her brother.''
At the time of her brother's slaying, Bishop told police she took her father's shotgun, loaded it, and fired a shot into her bedroom wall, then went downstairs to the kitchen and shot her brother in the chest.

She said she accidentally shot him while trying to figure out how to unload the shotgun.

Bishop then fled the home, tried to commandeer a car at gunpoint from a Braintree auto dealership, and trained the gun on police, who eventually persuaded her to drop the weapon, according to police reports from 1986. Bishop was released within hours and did not face charges at the time.

Her mother told police that she witnessed the shooting and that it was an accident.

Bishop, a biology professor, graduated from Northeastern University, earned a doctorate in genetics at Harvard University, then worked in labs at several Boston hospitals. She and her husband moved to Alabama with their four children in 2003.

On Feb. 12, Bishop allegedly opened fire on her colleagues during a faculty meeting after being denied tenure.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/23961666/detail.html
'Justice Served' In Bishop Case, Chief Says
Amy Bishop Attempted Suicide After Indictment

POSTED: 6:27 am EDT June 19, 2010
UPDATED: 7:05 am EDT June 19, 2010
BRAINTREE, Mass. --
Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier was a patrol officer in 1986 when police said Amy Bishop shot and killed her brother, Seth. He said he was relieved this week when a grand jury indicted her for first-degree murder.

"Justice really has finally been served not only for Seth Bishop, but for the police officers that were actually working that day that confronted Amy Bishop," Frazier said.

Bishop tried to commit suicide in an Alabama jail Wednesday night just hours after the indictment was announced.

In addition to the 1986 murder indictment, Bishop has been charged with killing three colleagues in a Feb. 12 rampage at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she was a biology professor. She was rushed to Huntsville Hospital where she was treated and survived the suicide attempt.

BIshop is suspected of pointing a gun at a car dealership worker as well as the police in an attempted getaway following the shooting of her
18-year-old brother.

"One of them (police officer) informed me he thought he was going to die that day," Frazier said. "He felt she had nothing to live for and she was going to shoot him."

But as she was being booked, Frazier said the officers were told to let Bishop go. Authorities at the time ruled the shooting accidental.

"There was a lot of frustration among the rank and file of the department," said Frazier. He said many cops believed you could get away with murder in Braintree.

Twenty-four years later, it's still unclear why Bishop was released.

"There's people that I guess know but i'm not sure if they are being honest will all of us," Frazier said.

Frazier said the blame for this botched case is clear to him.

"It's hard for me to fathom all the finger pointing going on that the heads of two agencies who are responsible didn't at least do something," Frazier said. "I would just like to see some of them take some of the responsibility and not say the buck didn't get to them."
He was referring to U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, the former Norfolk District Attorney, who said Braintree police did not provide him with critical reports. And former Braintree Police Chief John Polio who has consistently defended his actions in 1986.

Bishop allegedly went on a rampage, shooting six colleagues at the University of Alabama in February. Three of them died.

Frazier said if she had been charged in connection with the Braintree shooting there would have been red flags around her for the rest of her life.

"One of the officers that was involved made a comment to me about it that he knew at some point in his career this would come back to haunt him," Frazier said.

Video at link

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/19/judge_rejects_effort_to_release_inquest_records_to_public/
Judge rejects effort to release inquest records to public
Globe’s lawyer to appeal decision
June 18, 2010

A Norfolk Superior Court judge yesterday rejected a request from The Boston Globe to unseal records from the judicial inquest into the 1986 fatal shooting of Seth Bishop by his sister, Amy.
Judge Elizabeth Bowen Donovan wrote in her decision that public access to a transcript and judicial report from the inquest could cause “embarrassment’’ to those involved and prejudice potential jurors against Amy Bishop, who on Wednesday was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in her brother’s death.

“The court balanced the rights of all concerned, including the public,’’ Donovan wrote in a seven-page decision.

The Globe filed its request Wednesday morning, citing a state law, enacted in 1992, that provides for the release of judicial inquest records once a grand jury files an indictment.

A court-appointed lawyer for Amy Bishop argued against the Globe’s request at a hearing Thursday morning. That lawyer, Larry Tipton of Dedham, said he believed the documents’ release would infringe on Bishop’s right to a fair trial and would hurt the privacy interests of witnesses who testified at the inquest.

“I think the judge was right on the law and the facts and did the right thing,’’ Tipton said yesterday.

A Globe lawyer said the newspaper intends to appeal the decision.

“We believe the statute and decisions by other courts make clear that these sorts of materials are public,’’ said David McCraw, vice president and assistant general counsel of The New York Times Co., which owns the Globe.

Seth Bishop’s death came under new scrutiny in February, when Amy Bishop, a 45-year-old biology professor and mother of four, allegedly went on a shooting rampage at the University of Alabama Huntsville, killing three colleagues and injuring three others. She is being held in an Alabama jail awaiting trial on charges of capital and attempted murder.

Bishop’s arrest drew attention to law enforcement’s handling of the Dec. 6, 1986, death of Seth Bishop in the family’s Braintree home. Amy Bishop had shot her 18-year-old brother with their father’s shotgun. She then fled the house and tried to commandeer a getaway car at gunpoint from an auto dealership. After she was apprehended by police, she said the shooting was an accident, and she was never charged.

The current Norfolk district attorney, William R. Keating, ordered a judicial inquest after widespread publicity raised questions about his predecessor’s handling of the 1986 investigation. In April, Quincy District Court Judge Mark R. Coven conducted the inquiry, hearing from 19 witnesses over three days. He filed his report and a transcript of the proceedings last month in Norfolk Superior Court.

Keating then presented evidence to a grand jury, and on Wednesday announced that the panel had indicted Bishop in the 1986 killing. Keating said that at the time of Seth Bishop’s death, “Jobs weren’t done, responsibilities weren’t met, justice wasn’t served.’’

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/cops_and_courts/x23931175/Amy-Bishop-documentary-to-air-on-cable-TV
Amy Bishop documentary to air on cable TV
July 31, 2010

BRAINTREE —

Amy Bishop, the Braintree native accused of going on a shooting spree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will be back in the national spotlight Sunday night, in a cable TV documentary.

The TLC program “Killer On Campus” will air at 9 p.m. Sunday. The Bishop segment features interviews with teachers and students in Alabama as well as a re-creation of the Braintree native’s alleged murder of three fellow teachers at the school on Feb. 12.
(snip)

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/braintree/2010/08/amy_bishop_and_braintree_back.html
With TV special, Amy Bishop and Braintree back in the news
August 3, 2010

Braintree got its share of 60 minutes of unwanted fame this week when TLC aired “Killer on Campus.”

The “investigative special” focused on Braintree native Amy Bishop, who is accused of killing three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville and wounding three others last February after she was denied tenure.

The program also delves into the 1986 shotgun killing of Bishop’s brother, 18-year-old Seth Bishop, at their Braintree home. Originally declared an accident, the case was reopened after the Alabama shooting and Amy Bishop was charged in June with murdering her brother.
(snip)

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12945901
Daughter of UAH shooting victim talks about mom's recovery
August 8, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Thursday will mark six months since tragedy struck the campus of UA-Huntsville.

Police say Dr. Amy Bishop opened fire on her colleagues during a faculty meeting on February 12.

Three faculty members were killed and three others were injured.

Now, the daughter of Stephanie Monticciolo, a staff assistant who was injured in the shooting, is telling her family's story of recovery and rebirth.

"Instead of having this thing that could've destroyed us all, it transformed us," said Michele Monticciolo. "It made us more whole it made us more loving."

Monticciolo's mother Stephanie was one of six people shot during a biology faculty meeting at UA-Huntsville. Stephanie survived being shot in the head and months later continues to make strides in her recovery.
(snip)

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/09/uah_gets_grant_co-written_by_t.html
UAH gets grant co-written by two victims of February campus shooting
September 29, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A grant co-written in part by two professors who died in the campus shooting Feb. 12 has been awarded to the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Maria Davis and Gopi Podila died while attending a staff meeting. Former assistant professor Amy Bishop has been charged in the killings.

The National Science Foundation grant, also written by Lynn Boyd, provides funds for UAH to purchase a state of the art microscope that will enhance the capabilities of the university's biology teaching and research, according to the announcement by the school.

The grant and five-year maintenance is valued at about $350,000.
(snip)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hFw5CulQA1V5ePAkvlcA095GuAfgD9IIE4180?docId=D9IIE4180
APNewsBreak: '93 mail bomb review clears Ala. prof
September 30, 2010

BOSTON — A former professor accused of killing three colleagues this year and her brother in 1986 won't be charged in an attempted mail-bombing in Massachusetts.

Amy Bishop and her husband were questioned in the 1993 mailing of two pipe bombs to Dr. Paul Rosenberg, but never charged. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz reviewed the investigation after Bishop was charged with the shootings at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in February.

Rosenberg received the pipe bombs shortly after Bishop left a job as a researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston, partly due to a poor review by Rosenberg. The bombs did not detonate.

On Thursday, Ortiz announced her office's review didn't find any problems with the investigation, in which no one was charged.

(snip)

http://www.myfoxal.com/Global/story.asp?S=13514786
Breaking News
UAH shooting victims file civil suit against Amy Bishop and her husband
Posted: Nov 16, 2010 5:05 PM CST Updated: Nov 16, 2010 5:06 PM CST
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Two victims from the UA- Huntsville shooting have filed a civil lawsuit.

Stephanie Monticciolo and her husband along with Dr. Joseph Leahy and his wife are named in a suit against Amy Bishop and her husband James Anderson.

Document on lawsuit
http://files.waff.com/civil%20suit.pdf
In the suit Amy Bishop allegedly caused the injuries to Monticciolo and Leahy during the shooting rampage on UA-Huntsville in February.
[Click here to read more on the UA-Huntsville Shootings   http://www.waff.com/global/category.asp?c=182724]

James Anderson is named for allegedly buying and supplying Bishop with the 9-milimeter handgun used in that shooting.

WAFF 48 News will continue to update this story.

http://www.waff.com/global/category.asp?c=182724
Grand jury to hear evidence in Amy Bishop's brother's death
Posted: Jun 04, 2010 6:39 PM CDT Updated: Nov 16, 2010 5:52 PM CST
BOSTON (AP) - A Massachusetts grand jury has been convened to hear evidence in the 1986 shooting death of the brother of a former university professor accused in Alabama of killing three colleagues.

Retired Braintree police chief John Polio told The Associated Press on Friday he's been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in Norfolk Superior Court next week.

A spokesman for the Norfolk district attorney's office won't comment. Amy Bishop's shooting of her teenage brother initially was ruled an accident.

Authorities began reinvestigating after Bishop was charged in the University of Alabama-Huntsville shootings in February. Bishop's family insists she shot her brother accidentally while trying to unload her father's gun.

A Quincy District Court judge recently conducted a closed-door inquest into the 1986 case and filed a sealed report.

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-details-of-civil-lawsuit-again-111610,0,784260.story
Closer Look: Details of Civil Lawsuit Filed Against Dr. Amy Bishop-Anderson & Husband
Venton Blandin Reporter

10:46 p.m. CST, November 16, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, AL —
The portion of the lawsuit that deals with events prior to the shooting picks up on page four and carries over to page six. It talks about everything from the purchase of the weapon lawyers claim was used in the shooting to Dr. Amy Bishop-Anderson's possession of it.

A lawyer for two of the victims, Stephanie Monticciolo and Dr. Joseph Leahy, says a threat was clear years before the February 12, 2010 shooting.
"This lady had some issues, and he knows that," says Lawyer Gary Conchin.

Part of a 12 page lawsuit says a 9mm gun used in shooting, was bought for Jim Anderson by a New Hampshire man named Donald Proulx, Jr. in 1989. It also says Anderson asked Proulx to buy the gun because New Hampshire did not having a waiting period for gun purchases. It is believed the Andersons were having a problem with their neighbors in Massachusetts.

Page five of the lawsuit says Mr. Anderson allowed his wife access to the gun. The complaint says at no time since 1989 did Dr. Bishop-Anderson have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Conchin believes Jim Anderson bears some responsibility.

"We feel like there is more significant evidence that he knew, or should have known what she had planned. We intend to pursue that," added Conchin.

WHNT NEWS 19 went to the home of the accused shooter and her husband to get reaction to the lawsuit.  Jim Anderson was there, but did not answer the door, or our requests for an interview.

"He had an awful lot to talk about early on. As one of Dr. Bishop-Anderson's attorneys said, he could not control him. He had something to say to everybody, so we want him to talk to us now," added Conchin.

Dr. Amy Bishop-Anderson and Jim Anderson are the only named defendants in the lawsuit, but it mentions 25 other possible defendants labeled A through Y.

They are there in case the plaintiffs decide later to sue those who made the 9mm gun, and/or prescription medicine Dr. Bishop-Anderson may have been taking.
We expect to try to get the evidence, and then make a decision on those subsequent claims. I'd say that is a possibility, just depending on what the evidence shows," added Conchin.

Jim Anderson has not been served a copy of the lawsuit yet. Conchin says he hopes to sit down with Anderson for a deposition by the February 1, 2011.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/01/14/victims_of_uah_faculty_shooting_sue_over_killings/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Massachusetts+news
Victims of UAH faculty shooting sue over killings
January 14, 2011

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Relatives of two teachers shot and killed during a faculty meeting last year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville filed lawsuits Friday claiming school administrators' failure to follow safety rules contributed to the mass slaying.
The lawsuits, filed in state court in Huntsville by survivors of Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel D. Johnson Sr., contend UAH officials knew that Amy Bishop, the professor charged in the killings, was mentally unstable yet didn't take steps that could have prevented the slayings.

Aside from Bishop and her husband James, the suit names UAH Provost Vistasp M. Karbhari, who also serves as executive vice president for academics. Another lawsuit had already been filed over the shooting.

The university said in a statement it was confident that Karbhari would be exonerated, saying that the "blame for this loss must be placed squarely on the perpetrator of this horrible crime."

"The university is saddened by the decision to sue Dr. Vistasp Karbhari and does not agree that Dr. Karbhari, or anyone associated with the university, could have predicted or prevented this random act of violence," it said.

An attorney for Bishop, Roy Miller, has said she will likely use an insanity defense. She is jailed without bond in the killings.

"The lawsuit does not come as any surprise. It's to be expected," Miller said.

Davis, Johnson and Gopi K. Podila were killed when gunfire erupted during a meeting of the biology department faculty last Feb. 12. Three other people were shot, two critically, but survived.

The suits claim school officials had warning signs that Bishop could be dangerous yet failed to notify police, as required by university regulations.

"We have learned from departmental e-mails that Dr. Bishop's severe mental instability was known by administrators, some of whom she had threatened, harassed, and hounded following denial of tenure," Douglas Fierberg, a Washington attorney for both families, said in a statement.

Davis' husband, Sammie Lee Davis, said his wife was slain by "her mentally ill colleague."

"We hope this action will help prevent future tragedies by educating the public on a university's responsibilities when dealing with people under severe psychological distress," he said in the statement.

The two faculty members who were seriously injured in the shooting, Joseph Leahy and Stephanie Monticciolo, filed suit against Bishop and her husband in November.

In June, a grand jury indicted Bishop for murder in the 1986 shooting death of her brother, 18-year-old Seth Bishop. The death at the family's suburban Boston home initially was ruled accidental. But the case was reopened and an inquest conducted after her arrest in the Huntsville case.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=13911948
Temporary stay issued in Bishop civil lawsuit
January 26, 2011

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - A temporary stay was issued in one of the civil lawsuits filed against Amy Bishop Anderson.(snipped)

(snipped)
Bishop's attorney asked the judge to halt the case until the criminal proceedings are done so she will not incriminate herself. The judge has ordered a temporary stay and will make it a permanent order if James Anderson does not object to the ruling.

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-attorneys-bishop-trial-likely-still-year-away-20110316,0,2675468.story
Attorneys: Bishop Trial Likely Still Year Away
March 16, 2011

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that Amy Bishop's trial is likely still at least a year away.

Attorneys for both sides spoke with WHNT News 19 on Wednesday, and said a huge backlog of capital murder cases already in the system would make a trial date before next March unlikely. Chief Trial Attorney Bob Becher said a timeline of twelve to eighteen months was the most realistic option. Bishop is accused of gunning down three of her fellow UAHuntsville professors during a faculty meeting in February 2010.
"Historically, judges will try their oldest cases first," said Becher, who is handling the case alongside Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard. "Since this is the newest case indicted by the grand jury, the other cases theoretically would be tried before this one."

Becher did not rule out the possibility of an earlier trial date, but said odds were against it.

"It might be that once we get a status conference set, that both sides would say they would be ready in six months. Obviously, everyone wants to get it tried as soon as possible."
 ::snipping2::

http://braintree.patch.com/articles/braintree-grad-amy-bishop-indicted-in-alabama-killings
Braintree Grad Amy Bishop Indicted in Alabama Killings
March 19, 2011

Thirteen months after allegedly gunning down three biology department colleagues at the University of Alabama, Braintree High School graduate Amy Bishop faces murder and attempted murder charges.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/03/16/bishop_is_indicted_on_murder_charges/
Bishop is indicted on murder charges
March 15, 2011

An Alabama grand jury has formally indicted Amy Bishop on capital murder and attempted murder charges stemming from the February 2010 University of Alabama Huntsville shootings.
The Huntsville Times reported online yesterday that Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard said the indictments came down last week.

Bishop was indicted on charges she killed three fellow professors: Maria Ragland Davis, Adriel Johnson, and department chairman Gopi Podila during a Feb. 12, 2010, faculty meeting in which Bishop was denied tenure at the university as a biology professor. She is also accused of shooting and wounding three other faculty members.

The capital charges carry the possibility that Bishop will be sentenced to death. Broussard’s office did not indicate whether it planned to pursue the death penalty, the Huntsville Times wrote.
 ::snipping2::

http://www2.alabamas13.com/news/2011/sep/03/ala-suspect-wants-report-mass-killing-sealed-ar-2359286/
Ala. suspect wants report on Mass. killing sealed
By: The Associated Press
Published: September 03, 2011
BOSTON (AP) - The highest court in Massachusetts is set to

decide whether a report on an inquest into the 1986 death of Amy

Bishop's brother should remain sealed from public view.

      Lawyers for Bishop and The Boston Globe are to make arguments

before the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday.
 ::snipping2::

http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/09/huntsvilles_amy_bishop_fights.html
Huntsville's Amy Bishop fights to keep sealed inquest report in brother's death
Published: Saturday, September 03, 2011, 12:32 PM     Updated: Saturday, September 03, 2011, 12:34 PM
BOSTON — It was only after Amy Bishop was charged with killing three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama that authorities in Massachusetts began to wonder if the shooting death of Bishop's brother 24 years earlier might not have been an accident after all.

After an inquest was conducted, a grand jury indicted Bishop for first-degree murder in her 18-year-old brother's death.

Questions about what went wrong during the original investigation remain unanswered. But a case going before the state's highest court could eventually yield some clues.

The Boston Globe is challenging a judge's decision to keep a report and transcript of the inquest sealed from public view. The newspaper argues that releasing the documents could shed some light on what led to the decision not to prosecute Bishop in her brother Seth's death. At the time, authorities accepted Bishop's claim that she accidentally shot her brother while trying to unload her father's 12-gauge shotgun in the family's Braintree home.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.patriotledger.com/features/x2137970681/Amy-Bishop-murder-trial-date-could-be-set-today
Amy Bishop pleads insanity; capital murder trial set for March
By Lane Lambert
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Sep 22, 2011 @ 12:26 PM
Last update Sep 23, 2011 @ 01:37 AM

(http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x110335437/g12c0000000000000009c89604af2dff0d3b6f3245d3cb965eb9aa71246.jpg)
Amy Bishop is led from the Madison Co. Courthouse Elevator to Judge Mann's courtroom for a plea hearing on the 8th floor Thursday Sept 22, 2011.(The Huntsville Times/Glenn Baeske)
It was a changed Amy Bishop sitting in an Alabama courtroom Thursday.

In her first court appearance in a year and a half, the Braintree native and accused murderer looked thin and pale, looking down at the defense table as her attorneys entered her pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity.

She will go on trial March 19 on charges that she pulled a gun from her purse and shot to death three fellow biology teachers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in February 2010.

She is also charged with attempted murder for shooting two other professors and a staff assistant. Madison County District Attorney Robert Broussard has said he will seek the death penalty.

Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann set Bishop’s trial date during a 45-minute hearing. He said he will not postpone the trial “absent a showing of a very good cause.”

Read more: http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x2137970681/Amy-Bishop-murder-trial-date-could-be-set-today#ixzz1Ylc0sqdv

http://www.waff.com/story/15976711/uah-witnesses-ordered-to-cooperate-with-defense
UAH witnesses ordered to cooperate with defense
November 7, 2011

(video at link)

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view/20111125university_of_alabama_shooting_survivor_has_fuller_appreciation_for_life/srvc=home&position=recent
University of Alabama shooting survivor has fuller appreciation for life
November 25, 2011


HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - This week is for giving thanks, and Joe Leahy starts another day by giving thanks, just as he has done almost every day since the shooting.

It has been 650 days since he and five other biology professors were shot during a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

For about 620 of those days, since he began to understand just how fortunate he was to survive, he has given thanks.
More...

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/02/amy_bishops_lawyers_want_trial.html
Amy Bishop's lawyers want trial date moved, say state has refused to pay for fair trial
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times
February 2, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Attorneys for capital murder defendant Amy Bishop want an appeals court to push back her trial, now scheduled for March 19, because state officials have ignored orders to pay for expert witnesses or diagnostic testing by a neurologist.

Bishop could face the death penalty if convicted. She is accused of killing three fellow faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville during a meeting Feb. 12, 2010. She is also accused of shooting and wounding three other UAH employees.
Bishop, a Harvard-trained biologist and mother of four, has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/newsnow/x2124806441/Amy-Bishop-s-lawyers-want-Alabama-trial-pushed-back
Amy Bishop’s lawyers want Alabama trial pushed back
February 3, 2012
 ::snipping2::
The Birmingham News reports that Amy Bishop’s court appointed attorneys say the state comptroller’s office and a new office of indigent defense services have refused a judge’s orders to pay for the defense experts or the testing.

The appeals court on Wednesday ordered the judge and state officials to respond within 21 days.

A trial date has been scheduled for March 19. Bishop, 45, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of capital murder and attempted murder in the February 2010 shootings at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

In addition to those charges, she is accused of murdering her teenage brother, Seth Bishop, back in 1986. She was not initially charged in that fatal shooting but was after a 2010 inquest into the death inside the Bishops’ Braintree home.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-10/metro/31042890_1_inquest-seth-bishop-amy-bishop
Judge allows partial release of Amy Bishop inquest transcript
By Travis Anderson
February 10, 2012

A Norfolk Superior Court judge has ruled that part of the transcript of the inquest into the 1986 shooting death of Amy Bishop’s brother should be made public, lawyers for the Boston Globe and Bishop said.

Larry Tipton, Bishop’s public defender, confirmed yesterday in an e-mail that the ruling had been issued and said he was reviewing the decision by Judge Kenneth Fishman to see if an appeal is warranted. Tipton has 10 days to file an appeal.

Jonathan Albano, a lawyer for the Globe, said in an e-mail that he was informed the two-page ruling from Fishman releases large parts of the transcript of the inquest proceedings, but not the final inquest report.
 ::snipping2::

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/02/state_lawyers_want_judge_to_bl.html
State lawyers want judge to block subpoena in Amy Bishop murder case
By Brian Lawson/The Huntsville Times
February 15, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Alabama Finance Department officials are asking a Madison County judge to quash a subpoena requesting their testimony in connection with the trial of accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop.

The Monday filing asks Circuit Court Judge Alan Mann to block the subpoena request filed by Bishop's court-appointed lawyers. Bishop's attorneys claim the state has ignored orders by Mann to release money to help pay for expert witnesses and diagnostic testing of Bishop by a neurologist.
 ::snipping2::
Bishop has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and her lawyers argue the expert testimony and  testing are central to their ability to mount a defense and ensure a fair trial.

The subpoena request seeks testimony and records related to the funding requests in the Bishop case. It subpoena wants to hear from Alabama Finance Director Marquita Davis, Alabama Comptroller Tom White, Director of Alabama's Indigent Defense Services Office Ricky McKinney and Ellen Eggers, who works in the indigent defense office.

The state's motion to quash argues that Bishop's lawyers have not shown their request seeks material that is evidentiary and relevant, that it is necessary in preparation for trial, that it is not a "general fishing expedition" and that they can't get the information through other means.

The state also contends the subpoena is unreasonable as it asks that the witnesses be available to testify "any day" between March 19 and March 30.

Bishop's lawyers have also petitioned the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to order Mann to delay the murder trial's March 19 start date and to direct the state to make the related payments.

http://enewscourier.com/local/x402364729/Amy-Bishops-parents-Sons-shooting-an-accident
Amy Bishop's parents: Son's shooting an accident
February 22, 2012

http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-23/news/31091779_1_braintree-police-seth-bishop-inquest
Bishop transcript raises new questions
Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
February 23, 2012

(3 page article)

http://www.waff.com/story/17012971/attorney-general-joins-fight-over-expert-witnesses
Attorney General joins fight over expert witnesses
By Amanda Jarrett
February 24, 2012

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/03/amy_bishops_lawyers_want_trial_1.html
Amy Bishop's lawyers want trial delayed until appeals court ruling
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times
March 3, 2012

How do you excuse one child killing another?  Especially after she then kills 3 co-workers.  Just suck it up and see your murdering offspring for what she is.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20120308finances_threaten_delay_in_amy_bishop_murder_trial/
Finances threaten delay in Amy Bishop murder trial
March 8, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Finances are threatening to delay the trial of a university professor charged with killing three colleagues — the second time this year that money issues have gotten in the way of a high-profile Alabama murder case.

Defense lawyers have asked a judge in Huntsville to postpone the trial of Amy Bishop, who is accused of the shooting outburst that also wounded three during a faculty meeting in 2010 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

The defense says the case, now set for trial March 19, should be pushed back indefinitely because the state is refusing to pay for psychiatric testing that’s vital to Bishop’s planned insanity defense.

The state wants a judge to withdraw a previous order that approved the payments, but courts have yet to rule on any of the requests.

Bishop already has been evaluated by a state expert, but the results have not been made public. Her lawyers want another round of tests conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to bolster their claims that psychiatric problems led to the mass shooting.
More...
(2 pg. article)

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/03/amy_bishop_capital_murder_tria.html
Amy Bishop capital murder trial date pushed back from March 19, no new date set
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times
March 12, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - The high-profile murder case against accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop has been delayed.

Circuit Judge Alan Mann approved a defense request Friday to push back the start date for Bishop's trial.

The case had been set to begin March 19 and no new date was immediately set.
More...

http://www.wickedlocal.com/braintree/news/x1231828031/Amy-Bishop-murder-trial-in-Alabama-reset-for-Sept-10
Amy Bishop murder trial in Alabama reset for Sept. 10
By Bob Aicardi, Wicked Local Braintree
March 21, 2012

Braintree —

The trial of Braintree native Amy Bishop, a former biology professor charged with killing three University of Alabama at Huntsville colleagues and wounding three others in a shooting spree during a Feb. 12, 2010 faculty meeting, was supposed to start March 19 but has been rescheduled to Sept. 10.

Madison County Circuit Court Judge Alan Mann approved a defense motion to postpone Bishop’s trial after the state appeals court declined to order the Alabama comptroller’s office to pay in advance for expert witnesses, the Huntsville Times reported. Mann had previously ordered the payments three times.

Bishop is in the Madison County Metro Jail in Huntsville without bail. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Taxpayers are funding her defense after she was declared to be indigent.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.waff.com/story/17369114/woman-to-be-sentenced-for-murder-despite-history-of-mental-illness
Woman to be sentenced for murder despite history of mental illness
April 9, 2012

MADISON COUNTY, AL (WAFF) -

A woman will soon be sentenced for the murder of her mother.

A Madison County jury found Kimberly McLaughlin guilty of Shirley Robuck's murder. This verdict came despite McLaughlin's history of mental illness.

Amy Bishop Anderson has also pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

WAFF Legal Analyst, Mark McDaniel, said trying to convince a jury a client is insane is one of the difficult things an attorney can attempt.
 ::snipping2::
Court records show UAH shooter Amy Bishop-Anderson is undergoing psychological evaluations. Her sanity is sure to be brought up in the courtroom.

The defendant is going to be faced with jurors that have already seen, heard, or read so much about Bishop-Anderson and a lot of them have made decisions already and determined she is or is not crazy.

McDaniel said selecting the jury in that case has the potential to be a very long and drawn out process.

Amy Bishop-Anderson's trial date is scheduled for September 10th.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/05/alabama_supreme_court_rejects.html
Alabama Supreme Court rejects request to delay discovery in UAH shooting civil case
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times 
May 11, 2012 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The Alabama Supreme Court Friday rejected a request by James Anderson, the husband of accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop, to delay discovery in a civil lawsuit until Bishop's murder trial is complete.

Anderson and his wife are the subject of several lawsuits stemming from the Feb. 12, 2010 shooting on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus that left three people dead and three others injured.

Bishop is set to go on trial for capital murder and attempted murder Sept. 10 and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Anderson and Bishop were sued by Stephanie Monticciolo and Joseph Leahy and their families. Leahy, a UAH biology professor and Monticciolo, a biology department staff assistant, were seriously injured in the shooting.
Their lawsuit alleges Anderson provided the gun to Bishop that was used in the shooting.

Anderson and Bishop asked that the case be delayed, including civil discovery of potential evidence in the case and depositions. The trial court last year granted the delay of discovery for Bishop, but not Anderson.

They both asked the Alabama Supreme Court to rule on the request, citing his right to avoid self-incrimination on any criminal charges that could arise from the UAH shooting and his rights of marital and spousal privilege that protect communication between couples.

Under Alabama law, "a husband and wife may testify either for or against each other in criminal cases, but shall not be compelled so to do."
More...

http://articles.boston.com/2012-05-24/yourtown/31840843_1_chief-frazier-police-station-town-official
Braintree police chief retiring after 32 years on the force
By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent, Globe Staff
May 24, 2012

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier has announced that he will retire from the department in August after over 30 years on the force.

According to a release, Frazier was appointed to the Braintree Police Department in 1980, and became chief of police in 1993. He was re-appointed chief by Mayor Joseph Sullivan in 2010.
 ::snipping2::
Currently there is no plan to choose Frazier’s successor, but one will be developed in the coming weeks, Sullivan said.

 ::snipping2::

Frazier made headlines in 2010, when he publicly questioned his department's handling of the Amy Bishop case. Bishop shot and killed her brother, Seth, at their home in Braintree in 1986.

The shooting was ruled accidental by police, but Frazier, in a Feb. 14, 2010, press conference, said the investigation was mishandled and swept under the rug by the department, possibly because Bishop's mother was a town official and told police the shooting was an accident.

I don't know how the parents live with themselves.

It's really disheartening how some self-righteous parents will cover up their son or daughter's crimes even if it was another of their children murdered or as in the case of the Anthony's their own grandchild murdered by their daughter and they never look back.   ::MonkeyNoNo::

 :smt102  Strange article, imo.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/06/uah_nations_most_crime-rattled.html
UAH is nation's most 'crime-rattled' college, according to website
By Lee Roop, The Huntsville Times
Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 2:30 PM     Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 3:30 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The 2010 biology department shootings helped put the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) on top of a national website's ranking of "America's 25 Most Crime-Rattled Colleges." The unofficial ranking, based on an  analysis of crime reports, was released today by the website "The Daily Beast."
UAH spokesman Ray Garner called the ranking skewed. "It is no secret that we had a tragic shooting incident on our campus in 2010, and that event heavily skewed this ranking," Garner said in a statement today. "If you look at our overall crime statistics, you will find outside that isolated event that our university offers a safe environment for the thousands of students, faculty and staff that travel around our campus."
 ::snipping2::
According to the website, UAH had the following numbers of crimes during the 2008-2010 period surveyed: 3 homicides, 4 robberies, 10 aggravated assaults, 80 burglaries and 8 car thefts.



(34 comments at time I posted)

http://www.waaytv.com/news/local/story/UA-Huntsville-tops-crime-list/6AykcMOZREC1zI4GD1twQA.cspx
UA-Huntsville tops crime list
June 19, 2012

Huntsville, Al (WAAY) - In 2010, UA-Huntsville made national news when biology professor Amy Bishop Anderson allegedly opened fire during a faculty meeting killing three colleagues and wounding three others.
 
That day, students found out about the shootings through the UAlert system.
 
"That was an email system setup to email us whenever there is an emergency on campus," said UAH senior Jared Wasson. He was a freshman at the time and remembers getting text messages about the shooting before he was notified via UAlert.
 
"It was very delayed. I heard from a friend at UAB about the shootings actually first," he remembered.
 
Two years later UAH tops the list of most crime-rattled colleges in America according to the website, The Daily Beast.
 
The website says the list was compiled by comparing crime data from 500 U.S. colleges and universities. According to the website, UAH had 3 homicides, 4 robberies, 10 aggravated assaults, 80 burglaries and 8 car thefts from 2008 to 2010.

But since the deadly shootings, UAH has made major changes to campus security. The U alert system, for example, got a major facelift.
 
Tom Gray, a sophomore, says he gets alerts on a regular basis.
 
"I receive emails and text messages and they tell us when there is everything from a thunderstorm alert or anything like that," said Gray.

University spokesman Ray Garner provided a list of steps the college has taken to ensure student safety. (see list at link)
 ::snipping2::

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/06/alabama_supreme_court_denies_a.html
Alabama Supreme Court denies accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop's request for expert witness fees (Updated with court decision)
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times
Published: Friday, June 29, 2012, 11:45 AM     Updated: Friday, June 29, 2012, 4:00 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The Alabama Supreme Court has denied a request by attorneys for accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop to order the state to pay for expert witness fees before her scheduled Sept. 10 trial.

The order, issued this morning, follows a similar denial by the Alabama Court of Appeals, but does not directly address the issue of whether the state should pay for the expert witnesses and related diagnostic testing.
Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann has ordered the payments to be made on three occasions, but the state comptroller's office has declined, saying Alabama law did not authorize them.

The Supreme Court opinion cites the failure of Bishop's attorneys to include certain documents related to their earlier requests that the trial court hold the State of Alabama in contempt for refusing to make payments.

The Supreme Court denied the motion by saying that Bishop has not proven the trial court has refused to enforce a contempt order.
Bishop, 47, faces capital murder charges for the Feb. 12, 2010 shooting deaths of three biology faculty colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty for Bishop if she is convicted.

Bishop's attorneys are planning a defense of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. They contend the expert witnesses and related diagnostic testing of Bishop are necessary. They've argued in court papers that some of the expert work to be performed cannot be done without advance payments.
 ::snipping2::
Her trial date was originally set for March 19, but the dispute over the expert payments led to Mann ordering a continuance until September.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/07/attorneys_for_accused_uah_shoo_1.html
Attorneys for accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop subpoena state officials in expert fees battle
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times
Published: Tuesday, July 03, 2012, 5:47 PM     Updated: Thursday, July 05, 2012, 1:52 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Attorneys for accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop are again seeking to subpoena Alabama's finance director and other state officials in an effort to secure expert witness fees before Bishop's Sept. 10 trial.

The subpoena request comes less than a week after the Alabama Supreme Court, on procedural grounds, refused Bishop's request to order that fees be paid.

Bishop, 47, could face the death penalty if convicted of the Feb. 12, 2010, killing of three fellow University of Alabama in Huntsville biology faculty members. She is also charged with three counts of attempted murder.

Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann has ordered the state to make payments on three occasions, but the state comptroller's office has declined, saying Alabama law did not authorize them. Bishop's attorneys have asked Mann to hold the state in contempt for nonpayment.
More...

Why not let her mommy & daddy pay the bills?  They want to get her off of every murder she commits...let them bear this burden as well.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/07/amy_bishops_lawyers_want_supre.html
Amy Bishop's lawyers want Supreme Court to order state to cover expert witness costs
July 13, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Attorneys for accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop are asking the Alabama Supreme Court to order the state to pay expert witnesses that are part of Bishop's insanity defense.
The Friday filing obtained by The Times argues that the state comptroller's office has improperly ignored orders by Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann to make payments to an expert psychiatrist and to the University of Alabama in Birmingham for neurological testing.
More...

Comments at Link

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/07/state_supreme_court_again_says.html
State Supreme Court again says no early payments for Amy Bishop's defense
July 23, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The Alabama Supreme Court has again refused to order state officials to pay now for experts her attorneys say they need to defend accused University of Alabama in Huntsville shooter Dr. Amy Bishop in September.
The court declined Monday to review its earlier refusal to order the payments. Bishop's attorneys wanted to pay experts as they prepare for her Sept. 10 trial, and the trial judge had agreed and ordered the state to pay now. It has refused.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Bishop, 47, who is charged in a campus shooting rampage that killed three fellow biology faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Feb. 12, 2010.
Her attorneys want payments to an expert psychiatrist and to the University of Alabama in Birmingham for neurological testing. They are pleading Bishop not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
More...

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/07/accused_uah_shooter_amy_bishop_10.html
Accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop still fighting for expert witnesses, state may have found compromise
July 29, 2012

Huntsville's most prominent murder trial in a generation could take place twice, experts say, unless attorneys for Amy Bishop and the State of Alabama resolve a dispute over who will pay for expert witnesses.
But state officials said late Friday that they may have found a fix, if medical experts are willing to wait on deferred payments.
The stakes are high, as prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty when trial begins in September, and a poor provision for the defense would bolster an appeal.
Bishop's attorneys are arguing that the Harvard-trained biologist, who is charged with fatally shooting three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is not guilty by reason of insanity.
Her attorneys, who were appointed by the court, contend they need help from a neuropsychiatrist and a brain scan of Bishop, as part of her defense. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that defendants are entitled to expert assistance if it is important to their defense.
The current refusal by the state comptroller's office to cover about $10,000 in expert costs could set a clear path for an appeal if Bishop is convicted of capital murder, said Talitha Powers Bailey, a professor at the University of Alabama's law school and director of the school's Capital Law Defense Clinic.
More...

http://www.waff.com/story/19172567/bishop-anderson-beaten-in-jail
Amy Bishop-Anderson beaten in Madison Co. Jail
Posted August 1, 2012, Updated August 2, 2012

 ::snipping2::
Bishop-Anderson was taken to the onsite nurse. Initially, they thought she had a broken wrist, but that proved not to be the case.

She is currently being held in a lock up cell in the medical unit where she was checked on by a physician.

Family members have confirmed that the inmate involved was Amy Nicole Maclin. The family member said that Bishop-Anderson "disrespected Amy Maclin and she beat her with a cafeteria tray, and Amy Maclin is now in solitary confinement."

Comments at Link

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/08/accused_uah_shooter_amy_bishop_11.html
Accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop was beaten by another inmate at Madison County Jail
August 1, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- A Huntsville TV station has reported that accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop was attacked by another inmate at the Madison County Jail over the weekend.
The Times' has confirmed the attack and Bishop's injuries were described as minor. The attack was described as taking place about 10 days ago.
WAFF reported that a family member of inmate Amy Nicole Maclin confirmed that Maclin beat Bishop with a cafeteria tray after Bishop "disrespected" Maclin.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judge-delays-trial-of-ex-professor-charged-in-alabama-huntsville-campus-killings-to-sept-24/2012/08/07/885e77ba-e0e1-11e1-8d48-2b1243f34c85_story.html
Judge delays trial of ex-professor charged in Alabama-Huntsville campus killings to Sept. 24
August 7, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A judge has delayed the trial of a former Alabama university professor accused of killing three colleagues and wounding three others during a campus faculty meeting.

Madison County Judge Alan Mann didn’t give a reason Tuesday as he pushed back the trial of Amy Bishop by two weeks. It will now begin Sept. 24 in Huntsville.
 ::snipping2::

http://whnt.com/2012/08/08/renowned-criminal-psychiatrist-to-impact-bishop-case/
Renowned Criminal Psychiatrist To Impact Bishop Case
Posted on: 10:00 pm, August 8, 2012, by Nick Banaszak, updated on: 09:51am, August 9, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Accused UAHuntsville shooter Amy Bishop Anderson will soon be examined by one of America’s most renowned criminal psychiatrists, a major reason why her upcoming trial was delayed.

The two-week delay was ordered by Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann on Tuesday, and one local attorney says it’s not hard to figure out why the trial was pushed back to September 24th.
 ::snipping2::

Video at Link

http://whnt.com/2012/08/31/bishops-lawyers-file-new-motion-regarding-sentencing/
Bishop’s Lawyers File New Motion Regarding Sentencing
August 31, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – There are new details about the upcoming capital murder trial of Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson, the woman accused of shooting six colleagues at UAHuntsville in February 2010.

Her lawyers filed a new motion this week.  They want the judge to prohibit characterization of the jury’s role as advisory with regard to sentencing.

Lawyers file ‘motions in limine’ prior to the trial to address something they know will likely come up during the trial.   

Jake Watson, a Huntsville lawyer who isn’t involved with the Bishop case, says these motions serve one purpose.

“To help the court proceedings move along efficiently, so lawyers aren’t constantly objecting to things that the court can rule on pre-trial,” said Watson.

Attorneys for Amy Bishop-Anderson want a judge to keep prosecutors from using certain words when addressing the jury.
 ::snipping2::
Watson says several states are wrestling with to deal with how to deal with this particular motion.  He said he believes the issue will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bishop Anderson’s trial is scheduled to start September 24 in Madison County Circuit Court.  Judge Alan Mann will preside.

Video at Link

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/09/post_878.html
Attorneys for Amy Bishop want close look at potential jurors in upcoming capital murder trial
September 9, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Attorneys for Amy Bishop are asking the trial judge for wide latitude while they question potential jurors for her capital murder trial.

The attorneys want to be able to probe for biases of would-be jurors who may be inclined to give the death penalty in all cases, are incapable of giving proper weight to mitigating evidence or who don't believe life in prison without parole is a sufficient punishment.

Bishop, 47, is set to go on trial Sept. 24 in the shooting deaths of three of her biology faculty colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville on Feb. 12, 2010.

Bishop is charged with killing biology professors Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson, and Biology Department chair Gopi Podila during a shooting rampage in a faculty meeting. She also is charged with attempting to kill professors Joseph Leahy and Luis Cruz-Vera, and staff assistant Stephanie Monticciolo.

Bishop is seeking a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect - an insanity defense - which requires her attorneys to prove she was suffering from a serious mental disease or defect at the time of the shootings and that it prevented her from understanding the nature and wrongfulness of her actions.

Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard has said he will seek the death penalty for Bishop, a Harvard-educated mother of four.

The attorneys in the case are under a gag order.
More...

http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/UAH-Shooting-Survivor-Condemns-Amy-Bishop-Accused-Shooter-169161576.html
UAH Shooting Survivor Condemns Amy Bishop, Accused Shooter
September 10, 2012

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/09/accused_uah_shooter_amy_bishop_12.html
UAH shooter Amy Bishop pleads guilty to capital murder charge, avoids death penalty (updated)
September 11, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Amy Bishop pleaded guilty this afternoon to capital murder charges in Madison County Circuit Court in an agreement that will send her to prison for the rest of her life.
Amy Bishop pleads guiltyUAH shooter Amy Bishop heading into the courtroom to plead guilty to capital murder on Sept. 11, 2012. (The Huntsville Times/Eric Schultz)

Bishop, 47, will not be eligible for the death penalty under the terms of the agreement.

She stood before Judge Alan Mann and entered one guilty plea to capital murder and three pleas of attempted murder.
 ::snipping2::
Under Alabama law, a capital murder defendant who pleads guilty still must have a jury hear the evidence against them. If Bishop enters the plea, a condensed version of the case -- the facts would no longer be in dispute -- is expected to be held Sept. 24. Her trial was supposed to start Sept. 24.
Bishop has been held in the Madison County Jail since the shooting. Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann is presiding over the case.

At the end of the hearing, Mann directed attorneys not discuss the case until after the trial is complete, so they could not explain how the guilty plea agreement came about.

I can't believe she actually plead out.  Thankfully, we won't have to hear about how pitiful she is and how she was abuse, neglected, misunderstood as a child and that's why she did it.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/09/amy_bishop_husband_could_recei.html
Amy Bishop, husband could receive royalty checks from UAH for patented cell incubator
September 14, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Admitted UAH shooter Amy Bishop and her husband are in line to receive royalties from the university for an invention expected to start generating revenue next month.

The cell incubator Bishop and Jim Anderson invented is described as an "automated petri dish" and has been developed for sale to research universities by a Huntsville start-up company called InQ Biosciences.

Under UAH's patent rules, the University of Alabama in Huntsville owns the patent which was issued last year. Bishop and Anderson are credited as the inventors and in UAH's standard patent agreement inventors are entitled to 70 percent of any invention that generates up to $50,000 and 40 percent of income over $50,000.

When asked about the potential payout to Bishop and Anderson, UAH spokesman Ray Garner suggested Friday it was too soon to know if the university would be writing checks to them.

"As a result of pending civil litigation filed by the victims of the shooting, questions remain where any proceeds that are due the inventor will be paid," Garner said.

Bishop and Anderson are named in lawsuits filed by the families of Dr. Maria Ragland Davis and Dr. Adriel Johnson, who were both killed by Bishop on Feb. 12, 2010 during a shooting rampage in a faculty meeting in UAH's Shelby Center. That lawsuit also names Dr. Vistasp Karbhari, the university provost.

Lawsuits have also been filed by Dr. Joseph Leahy and Stephanie Monticciolo, who were seriously wounded in the attack and by Dr. Debra Moriarity, who was in the meeting and has been hailed for trying to shove Bishop out the conference room door. Bishop and Anderson are the only defendants in those lawsuits.

All of the lawsuits have effectively been on hold waiting for the criminal case against Bishop to be resolved. The attorneys in the cases are under a gag order.
Huntsville attorney Mark McDaniel said Friday that if one or more lawsuits against Bishop and Anderson are successful and the plaintiffs win a financial judgment, attorneys in the case would seek to claim any assets owned by the couple. McDaniel said that could include property, insurance policies and income sources like any money from the InQ sales.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.waff.com/story/19612489/amy-bishop-anderson-to-go-to-trial-monday
Amy Bishop-Anderson to go to trial Monday
September 22, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -

One of the most notorious accused killers in Huntsville history will make what may be her final court appearance Monday morning, and it may cause some traffic troubles downtown.
 ::snipping2::
She took a plea deal, so they don't need the pool for her hearing Monday, but court officials said they were unaware she was planning to take a deal.

They sent out the summons around a month in advance; she took the deal 10 days ago - and timing couldn't have been worse.
 ::snipping2::
The UAH killer still has a hearing set on Monday for her guilty plea to capital murder

That hearing is expected to last only a day or two.
 ::snipping2::
Bishop-Anderson will be in court on Monday, and WAFF 48 News will cover it live through a blog on WAFF.com

http://www.gjsentinel.com/breaking/articles/birgfeld-family-wants-her-remains-back/
Amy Bishop, ex-Univ. of Ala. professor who pleaded guilty to shooting six people, sentenced to life in prison
September 24, 2012

(AP) HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A former university professor has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing three of her colleagues and wounding three others during a faculty meeting.

The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before convicting Amy Bishop on Monday. Amy Bishop, a former professor at the University of Alabama in Hunstville, showed no reaction as the verdict was read.

Circuit Judge Alan Mann then imposed the life sentence. Bishop did not speak in court.

The Harvard-educated biologist avoided a death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this month to the shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

However, she was still required to have a brief trial under Alabama law because she admitted to a capital murder charge.

Investigator Charlie Gray and professor Debra Moriarty were the only witnesses to testify during the brief trial Monday for Amy Bishop. Bishop already has pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, but state law requires a trial because it was a capital charge.

Gray also said police believe Bishop opened fire during the faculty meeting because she was angry over being denied tenure, which effectively ended her career at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"She would say, `It didn't happen. I wasn't there. It wasn't me,"' Gray said.

 ::snipping2::

Bishop still could face a trial in Massachusetts, where she is charged in the 1986 killing of her 18-year-old brother. Seth Bishop's death had been ruled an accident after Amy Bishop told investigators she shot him in the family's Braintree home as she tried to unload her father's gun. But the Alabama shootings prompted a new investigation and charges. Prosecutors have said they will wait until after sentencing in the Alabama case to determine whether to put Bishop on trial in Massachusetts.

Can you imagine the sheer terror Professor Moriarity must have felt after having witnessed Amy Bishop shooting their collegues in close proximity and then aiming the pistol at her and the gun misfiring time and again?  If the gun hadn't jammed, it could have been so much worse.  Or, if Amy Bishop had brought a second weapon.   ::MonkeyNoNo::   Professor Leahy suffered the lost an eye , and must live with the aftermath of the shooting, having watched 3 others shot to death. 

I would really, really like to see a full investigation with charges filed on Amy and her mother in the death of her teenge brother.  Amy shot him to death and her mother covered it up imo.  They BOTH are in a way responsible for the murders at the college.  Neither were held accountable in the young mans death, and if they had been, maybe she wouldn't have been in position do what she did at U of Alabama.  JMHO

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0924/Former-Alabama-professor-gets-life-in-prison
Former Alabama professor gets life in prison
September 24, 2012

A former Alabama biology professor who pleaded guilty to killing three colleagues and wounding three others in a 2010 shooting rampage was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday after a jury convicted her in a shortened trial.

Amy Bishop, avoided a death sentence by admitting earlier this month to gunning down her colleagues during a biology department staff meeting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
 ::snipping2::
The trial on Monday took less than two hours and featured only two witnesses. One was Bishop's former colleague Debra Moriarity, who recalled how she tried to take Bishop down after the woman started firing during the meeting.
Trained in gun safety by her hunter father, Moriarity testified that she ducked and crawled under a table to grab Bishop's legs.

"I was yelling, 'Stop, Amy! Stop! Don't do this!'" said Moriarity, who is now chairwoman of the biology department.

Moriarity said Bishop then pointed the gun at her. As Moriarity begged for her life, Bishop repeatedly pulled the trigger but the gun jammed, Moriarity testified. She said Bishop was silent during the attack
 ::snipping2::
After her arrest in Alabama, authorities in Braintree, Massachusetts, charged Bishop with the 1986 shooting death of her teenage brother.

Authorities in Massachusetts were awaiting the outcome of the Alabama trial before deciding how to proceed in their case.

Jurors on Monday did not have to weigh Bishop's guilt in the attempted murder charges, for which Circuit Judge Alan Mann sentenced her to three consecutive life sentences.

After the trial, professor Joseph Leahy, who lost an eye in the shooting and has just returned to teaching, said he felt the verdict was just.

"Seeing the photos was tough - I was seeing the bodies of my friends," he said. "They took the first three shots, and I got the fourth. I feel fortunate to be alive."
 

Well, it's just too bad Amy was very upset.  (world's tiniest violin etc. etc.)  She will soon find her behavior of being demanding, throwing fits and being "accustomed to getting her own way" etc. will only cause her problems.  I wonder if she's been given kid glove treatment up to this point? She shot six people, killing three.  I have no sympathy for her.  I believe there needs to be an investigation regarding Amy shooting to death her teenage brother years ago.  This should be done while her mother is still alive because not only does Amy need to be held accountable, but so does her mother, the cover up facilitator in the case.  JMHO

http://www.wsfa.com/story/19636534/amy-bishop-anderson-spends-first-night-at-tutwiler-prison
Amy Bishop-Anderson spends first night at Tutwiler prison
September 25, 2012

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -

Jail officials confirmed Amy Bishop Anderson is no longer in the Metro Jail and will spend her first night in Tutwiler Prison.
She was taken from the Metro Jail around 1 p.m. by Madison County deputies and a county transport officer.

Assistant Jail Administrator Lt. Steven Setzer said her routine was changed last night, and she was very upset. She wasn't in her usual cell, but was in a smaller cell in a high traffic area.

He said they put her in the "booking cell" after she was sentenced for security observation, where someone checked on her every 15 minutes. It was not suicide watch, and she was allowed to have all her personal effects.

Setzer said Bishop-Anderson left the building on Tuesday without "pitching a fit," which is unusual for her. He described her typical behavior as animated, demanding, and accustomed to getting her own way.

Setzer said being transported this quickly is not typical but not unusual. The sheriff called Tutwiler, and they had a bed available.
 ::snipping2::
Amy Bishop-Anderson will spend the rest of her life inside Tutwiler prison.
 ::snipping2::
Department of Corrections officials said it typically takes 30 days for an inmate to transfer to a state prison.

However, with high profile cases, the sheriff is able to expedite the process.

They said Bishop-Anderson will spend an undetermined amount of time in segregation. This is to help the prisoner adjust.