Old newspaper story raises questions about Ala. prof’s claims in brother’s 1986 Mass. shooting

Old story is similar to Ala. prof’s Mass. shooting

CANTON, Mass. — Investigators have discovered that a newspaper on triple murder suspect Amy Bishop’s bedroom floor when she killed her brother more than 20 years ago described an incident strikingly similar to what she did that day, raising questions about her claim it was an accident.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said investigators found the date of the newspaper after enlarging a police photo of the scene. He said the newspaper contained an article about a shotgun killing in which the suspect stole a getaway car from a dealership.

Bishop, now accused of killing three colleagues at an Alabama university this month, said she accidentally killed her teenage brother with a shotgun at their suburban Boston home in December 1986. She then went to a car dealership body shop and tried to commandeer a car at gunpoint, police said.

“We were struck by how parallel the circumstances were,” Keating said. “That could go to the state of mind of Amy Bishop at the time.”

Keating declined to be specific about the incident in the paper. Boston newspapers were reporting the article was about the November 1986 killing of the parents of actor Patrick Duffy, who starred in the TV series “Dallas.” They were slain with a shotgun during a robbery attempt at a Montana bar they owned. The two teen suspects then stole a truck at gunpoint from a car dealership. They were arrested after a high speed chase.

On Thursday, Keating ordered an inquest into the shooting of Bishop’s brother, Seth Bishop, saying there are new questions about whether it was the accident investigators concluded at the time.

The handling of the case has been under scrutiny since Amy Bishop was accused of killing three faculty colleagues and wounding three others in a shooting Feb. 12 at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Keating said the inquest would allow a judge to subpoena Bishop’s parents, who refused to talk with state troopers who went to their home last week, saying they had retained an attorney.

“Had they cooperated and we thought their answers were forthright and truthful,” Keating said, “this might not have been necessary.”

Bishop’s mother, Judith Bishop, was the only other witness to the killing. An attorney for Bishops’ parents, Bryan Stevens, said Judith Bishop was truthful with police after the shooting and that there’s “no question” it was an accident. He said his clients would cooperate with the inquest.

“There’s absolutely nothing that will be new,” Stevens said. “She’ll say the same thing in 2010 that she said in 1986.”

Judge Mark Coven, presiding judge in Quincy District Court, will conduct the closed-door inquest and report his findings to Keating, who would then decide whether to pursue an indictment. The only possible charge that could be filed is murder because the statute of limitations on all other counts, including manslaughter, has expired.

The fact that the only other eyewitness says the shooting was an accident is “a huge burden to overcome,” Keating said.

Police reports released by Keating last week said Amy Bishop told police she accidentally fired the shotgun in her bedroom, then went downstairs to ask her brother for help unloading the gun, which her father bought after a break-in.

She said after the gun accidentally went off again, hitting her brother, she fled, believing she dropped it, the reports said. She was arrested with the shotgun at gunpoint. She said she did not remember anything from when she fired the gun the second time until she was at a police station later.

Bishop was released after her mother went to the police station, and police didn’t question Bishop or her family for 11 days, among the serious errors Keating said were committed in the 1986 investigation.

Keating said his investigation indicates Bishop was calm and cooperative after she was arrested, contrary to police assertions at the time that she was too hysterical to be questioned.

“The more information we got, the more we looked at reports, the more questions we had,” Keating said.

The inquest won’t focus on how the investigation was handled, but some of what the judge finds could be used by state police, who are reviewing the original investigation, Keating said.

Seth Bishop’s death is among several incidents involving Amy Bishop, a Harvard University-educated neurobiologist, that are being re-examined, including when she and her husband were questioned but never charged in the 1993 attempted mail bombing of a medical researcher who gave her a bad job review. The U.S. attorney in Boston is reviewing its actions in that case.

Bishop also was charged with assault and disorderly conduct after a fight over a child booster seat in a restaurant in 2002. The charges were dismissed after six months’ probation.

Bishop 45, is charged with capital murder and attempted murder in the Alabama shooting. Colleagues say she had complained for months about being denied the job protections of tenure.

In Bishop’s only public comments since the Alabama shootings, she said they “didn’t happen.”

A police spokesman in Huntsville, Ala., said it was unclear whether information gathered in a Massachusetts inquest could be used in the capital murder case against Bishop in Alabama.

“It’s too bad they didn’t do a good investigation up there the first time,” Sgt. Mark Roberts said. “If they had in 1986, we might not be where we are today in 2010.”

AP reporter Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., contributed to this report.