Ex-Mass. police chief: No coverup in ‘86 slaying case involving suspect in Ala. univ shootings

Ex-chief: No Mass. coverup in Ala. prof’s ‘86 case

BRAINTREE, Mass. — A former Massachusetts police chief says there was no attempt to cover up a fatal shooting committed in 1986 by a University of Alabama in Huntsville professor currently accused of killing three colleagues at a faculty meeting.

Current Braintree, Mass., police Chief Paul Frazier says Amy Bishop shot her brother at their home and was held but a former police chief called officers and told them to release her. Frazier says Seth Bishop’s shooting was logged as an accident but detailed records of it have disappeared.

Former police Chief John Polio says he didn’t call officers to tell them to release Bishop. In his words, “There’s no coverup, no missing records.”

A university spokesman says Bishop had been denied tenure before she was held Friday in a campus shooting.

As Bishop was being taken to jail she said: “It didn’t happen. There’s no way.”

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

BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) — A University of Alabama professor accused of fatally shooting three colleagues at a faculty meeting this week shot her younger brother dead at their home in the Boston suburbs more than 20 years ago, but records of it are missing, police said Saturday.

Amy Bishop shot her brother in the chest in 1986, Braintree police Chief Paul Frazier said at a news conference. She fired at least three shots, hitting her brother once and hitting her bedroom wall, before police took her into custody at gunpoint, he said.

Before Bishop could be booked, the police chief back then told officers to release her to her mother, Frazier said.

The shooting of the brother, Seth Bishop, was logged as an accident, but detailed records of the shooting have disappeared, he said.

“The report’s gone, removed from the files,” he said.

He said people who worked for the police department then remember the shooting and he planned to meet with the district attorney over the possibility of launching a criminal investigation into the report’s disappearance.

A University spokesman said Bishop, 42, had been denied tenure before she was held Friday in a shooting at the Huntsville campus.

As Bishop was being taken to jail in handcuffs she said: “It didn’t happen. There’s no way.”

Attempts by The Associated Press to track down addresses and phone numbers for the previous police chief and Bishop’s family in the Braintree area weren’t immediately successful Saturday.

(This version CORRECTS full name of school is University of Alabama in Huntsville, not University of Alabama.)