Did Amy Bishop, Accused University of Alabama Shooter, Murder Her Own Brother?

By: Neil Katz
Topics: Daily Blotter

(AP/Bob Gathany, Huntsville Times)

(CBS)

(AP/Huntsville Police Dept)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (CBS/AP) Did Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama professor accused of killing three peers Friday in a possible tenure dispute, also gun down her brother in cold blood? Or was his 1986 death a tragic accident?

Photo: Amy Bishop is detained by police at University of Alabama in Hunstville, Feb. 12, 2010.

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Some of the facts are not in dispute, but some details of the case are disturbing.

On Dec, 6, 1986, Bishop, 44, 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.

Photo: Shooting victims Dr. Adriel Johnson Sr., Dr. Gopi Podila, and Dr. Maria Davis.

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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.

46 minutes later, Seth Bishop, a promising young engineering student and violinist, was dead, according to the Boston Globe. He was 18.

Photo: Amy Bishop's mug shot.

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But there are differing accounts, according to the Boston Globe, of Bishop's actions leading up to and after the shooting and there are disturbing questions as to why the police file of the case is now missing.

At the time, Braintree Police Chief John Polio called the incident an accident. A 1987 report the Boston Globe obtained from the Norfolk County's District Attorney's office said that after Bishop had an argument with her father she went to her parents' room to learn to load the family's shotgun. The weapon fired once in the bedroom. She then went downstairs, the report says, and accidentally shot her brother while her mother looked on. Then she ran out of the house, 12-gauge shotgun in hand.

Police eventually caught up with her, cuffed her, and took her to the station. But because Bishop was so emotionally distraught, she was released hours later.

Police questioned family members 11 days after the shooting and found discrepancies in their versions of events, according to the Boston Globe.

Amy Bishop's mother said that Amy had asked her for help in unloading the gun and accidentally shot her brother. Amy Bishop herself said that she had asked her brother not her mother for help. He told her to point the gun high, she said. Someone said something. She spun around, and accidentally shot her brother who was walking across the kitchen.

Police at the time sent the case to the District Attorney's office who believed the core of the story, called it an accident and filed it away.

But now, after Bishop allegedly stormed into a biology faculty meeting on the University of Alabama campus, shot three faculty members to death and injured three more, police are questioning whether they got it right in Boston more than 20 years ago.

"I don't want to use the word 'coverup,'" Braintree's current police chief, Paul H. Frazier told the Boston Globe. "I don't know what the thought process was of the police chief at the time."

Frazier believes that Amy Bishop got in a fight her brother, not her father. He also doesn't understand why the original police report has been missing since 1988. He told the Boston Globe he was a patrolman at the time, but got his account from an officer who was at the scene.

Former chief Polio called the idea that he covered anything up a "joke," according to the Boston Globe.

It's not yet clear if Massachusetts police will re-open the old case, but Amy Bishop still has plenty of trouble. She has been charged with one count of capital murder. She could face the death penalty if convicted. More charges are expected.

Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Joseph Leahy and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo were in critical condition early Sunday. Luis Cruz-Vera was released from the hospital.

Police believe Amy Bishop was angry over not getting tenure. As she was hauled away from the campus she seemed to not fully understand her alleged actions. "It didn't happen. There's no way," she said. "They are still alive."

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by kwhiteBraintree October 8, 2010 12:25 PM EDT: Amy is not evil. She is horribly messed up. Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that there was a cover up. Why? I can't explain it. Wish I could. But it wasn't because she was female. It was because of her parents and their connections. Maybe the parents felt they'd lost one child, they didn't want to lose the only one they had left, even if she was responsible for the murder of her brother. The gun didn't accidentally go off. You don't accidentally pump a gun and fire it at your brother, then stop, put on a coat and "accidentally" fire another round into the ceiling (all after "accidentally" firing the gun in your bedroom and allegedly no one hears it? A big house, but not Buckingham Palace). The parents were good friends with the chief of police, the mom was a town meeting member, they were well connected, and she got away with it. It was awful. I went to school with Seth - we were in the same class. Many people were upset at the outcome. I only knew Amy vaguely, but I knew she had a reputation for being odd. Obviously messed up to begin with, but now when you can't even deal with what you've done because you've got to lie about it your whole life... Not that I'm saying people should feel sorry for her - just that that has to have quite an impact. As time goes on, even more issues, more paranoia etc. Could the medications she's taken over the years have contributed to her mental state? Who knows? I suppose it's possible, but - the key here is she had an unstable mental state to begin with. If there is any impact from the medications, it is only one small piece of the puzzle. And that's not making excuses. It's an attempt to understand how someone can come this point. She's a totally screwed up person, but "evil" is something else. And once and for all - there is NO race issue here. She intended to kill everyone in that room. The gun jammed. She had more than enough rounds in the gun to kill them all and an additional 15 round clip in her bag. She continually tried to fire at an older white co-worker while the gun was jammed before they managed to lock her out of the room. This article doesn't give all the facts.; Reply to this comment

by followthattrail April 14, 2010 1:22 AM EDT

As I recall, a 12-gauge shotgun holds 2 shells. How did this individual (not a "lady" by any stretch of the imagination) fire three shots the day her brother was killed without reloading? Looks like the psychopath's mother is the one covering up. Since the mother or father didn't complain, there was no one to put pressure on the police chief to ensure that the matter was pursued. Maybe "Mom" has something to hide herself... was she having an affair with the chief? Why did she want a conference with him?... I smell fish.

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by kwhiteBraintree October 8, 2010 10:41 AM EDT: I don't know much about guns, but I believe this particular type of gun held 4 rounds. Mother and father were both very chummy with then police chief Polio. He and the father played golf all the time and mom was a town meeting member


by TP57 February 22, 2010 2:44 PM EST: Why is this not treated as a hate crime? She is white, victims are "of color", could it be because a raging liberal?; Reply to this comment


by student515 February 18, 2010 6:02 PM EST: I think it is the government's fault for the deaths of those injured or dead from the University of Alabama shooting. Bishop showed that she was a threat when she shot her brother in 1987. Shooting someone is a crime, even if it is an "accident". Bishop should have been punished for committing a crime. I cannot believe that, not only, did she not receive a jail sentence, but she was released a few hours after the shooting. The government needs to enforce the laws properly to protect people against unstable people like Bishop. The fault of the law enforcement system cost 3 innocent lives and harmed 3 more.; Reply to this comment

by rhdz February 17, 2010 2:05 PM EST

i'm in agreement with "toldyouso21". It was the first thing I noticed too. there was 14 faculty, 9 white, 5 of color and 4 of the 5 were shot (80%) while only one of the 9 (11%) or 2 of 10 white folks (20%) in the room if you include the dept secretary. There definitely seems to be an angle to this worth exploring that the major news networks have yet to touch on at all! It is ironic as white women tend to be the biggest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. It seems like she probably was wronged on the tenure bid, and thats unfortunate, but yes, why take it out on the faculty of color?

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by student515 February 18, 2010 6:09 PM EST: Hm, this is an interesting point. It is strange that no one mentioned this point in any of the news reports.

Perhaps she thought that she was disadvantaged by "foreigners", so she took her rage out on them.

I think it's devastating that those faculty members had their lives taken away because of her rage.


by Sollybolly September 1, 2010 11:52 AM EDT: Why does this have to be about race? are we not passed that? why can't she just be some crazy murderer who was upset things did not go her way?


by KlothConsulting February 17, 2010 12:14 PM EST: The Amy Bishop case is a prime example of how women who are violent and sociopathic are let loose upon the world. If this had been a man who had shot his brother, he would have been immediately investigated. When she became aggressive in the IHop with the mother and her two children, had she been a man, she would have been arrested. There were warning signs thru out her entire life and no one bothered to deal with them, because she is a woman and the feminist organizations have everyone believing that women are never violent. That women are never serial killers. That women never abuse men. I am a woman, so I can say this. As well, I run support groups for victims of abuse, primarily committed by women in high conflict divorce cases. Yes, there are lots of men commit heinous acts, but they are punished and investigated appropriately. But not the women. And because of this, hundreds of thousands of children suffer at the hands of their abusive mothers, and especially when it comes to high conflict divorce. Women can file false allegations of abuse with no repercussions. But when a man files for abuse, he becomes the target and reverse accused and the woman is allowed to claim self-defense. When in Amy Bishops case was there any self-defense motive? Where in Amy Bishops case was there any need for the violence. Why in Amy Bishops case was she not investigated in her brother's shooting? Why when she abused that mother and her children at the IHop was she not arrested? Because she is a woman and supposedly women do not do this. Amy Bishop is a prime example and living proof that women are just as aggressive and violent as men.; Reply to this comment


by toldyouso21 February 17, 2010 12:31 AM EST: Hmmm. The people she killed at the biology faculty meeting were all minorities. Maybe she blamed her failure to get tenure on Affirmative action--and decided to eliminate any person she thought was a recipient of that.; Reply to this comment


by RichCougarDramaQueenPsyco February 16, 2010 10:49 PM EST: the more I read about her, the more I am falling in love. so hot.; Reply to this comment


by Phxfire February 16, 2010 9:39 PM EST: Fortunately, there are no statute of limitations on murder/manslaughter. Should they find the 'missing' files and other information comes to light and it is clear that the shooting of her brother was no accident, she can still be charged.; Reply to this comment


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