Alabama suspect shot brother 23 years ago

MORE than 23 years before a college professor was accused of shooting six of her colleagues, her teenage brother died from the blast of a shotgun she held in the kitchen of her family’s home in Massachusetts.

The 1986 shooting was ruled accidental and no charges were filed against Amy Bishop. The case could get a closer look as authorities try to explain why they believe the Harvard-educated neuro-biologist opened fire on Friday, killing three people.

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.

Some, including the husband of one victim and one of her students, have said she was upset after being denied the job-for-life security afforded tenured academics. Authorities have refused to discuss a motive, and school spokesman Ray Garner said the faculty meeting wasn’t called to discuss tenure.

It appeared the violent episode in Bishop’s past was not known to her colleagues in Huntsville.

Bishop shot her brother, Seth, an 18-year-old accomplished violinist, in the chest in 1986, said Paul Frazier, the police chief in Braintree, Mass, where the shooting occurred.

The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office released a 1987 report with details of their investigation. The report concluded Seth Bishop was killed by an “accidental discharge of a firearm”.

Amy Bishop told investigators she was trying to learn how to use a shotgun her father had purchased for protection in the home after a break-in. She said she did not know how to use the weapon and brought it downstairs to the kitchen for help unloading it.

She said she was raising it when “someone said something to her and she turned and the gun went off” while her brother was walking across the kitchen, according to the report.

In Huntsville, 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. Three people were wounded. Two of them were in critical condition. The third was released from the hospital.

Bishop was arrested after the shooting and was charged with capital murder.