Mass. officer says he still thinks Amy Bishop accidentally killed her brother in 1986

Mass. officer: ‘86 Amy Bishop shooting an accident

QUINCY, Mass. — One of the first police officers on the scene when Amy Bishop killed her teenage brother in Massachusetts 24 years ago says he still believes the shooting was an accident.

Retired Braintree Officer Tim Murphy testified Tuesday at a closed-door inquest into Seth Bishop’s death. Murphy wouldn’t discuss his testimony but said afterward that the police investigation was thorough.

Murphy responded to the family home after the 1986 shooting and then helped arrest Amy Bishop nearby.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating ordered the inquest to investigate whether Bishop intentionally shot her brother. The judge’s report could potentially be used to pursue a murder indictment.

In February, Bishop was arrested in shooting deaths of three University of Alabama-Huntsville professors.

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

QUINCY, Mass. (AP) — A former worker at a Massachusetts auto body shop said Tuesday that a woman accused of killing three Alabama university colleagues pointed a shotgun at his chest and demanded his keys shortly after she shot her brother in 1986.

Tom Pettigrew said before the start of a closed-door inquest that he refused to hand over the keys hanging from his belt. The woman, Amy Bishop, then went to the parking lot and started checking car doors just before police arrived and arrested her.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating called for the inquest into Seth Bishop’s death after Amy Bishop was charged with fatally shooting three colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in February. That shooting brought new law enforcement scrutiny into her brother’s shooting in Braintree, Mass., 24 years earlier.

Seth Bishop’s death was ruled accidental at the time, but the report from judge presiding over the inquest could potentially be used by prosecutors to pursue a murder indictment against Amy Bishop.

Pettigrew appeared Tuesday at the inquest, but was told he would not immediately be called to testify.

Pettigrew, who was 22 at the time, said Bishop, then 21 and single, told him that she had just had a fight with her husband.

Prosecutors who handled the 1986 investigation have said they weren’t about told the confrontation at the car dealer’s body shop.

Investigators looking an old crime scene photo recently discovered a newspaper article about the 1986 killings of actor Patrick Duffy’s parents. The clipping, which was near shotgun shells in Amy Bishop’s bedroom, described how a teenager shot Duffy’s parents with a 12-gauge shotgun and stole a getaway car from an auto dealership.

Keating has said that Bishop’s actions at the auto dealership should have led to weapons charges against her.

Those charges, as well as a manslaughter charge, cannot be brought now because of a statute of limitations. The only potential charge Bishop could face is murder, which has no statute of limitations in Massachusetts.

Judge Mark Coven, the presiding judge at Quincy District Court, was conducting the inquest.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Nelson said Tuesday that prosecutors at first intended to call 24 witnesses, but some have died and others could not be located. The witness list has not been made public, but it is expected to include Amy Bishop’s parents, Judith and Samuel Bishop.

Judith Bishop was the only other witness to the shooting. She told police in 1986 that her daughter had been trying to learn how to use the shotgun when she accidentally fired it into her bedroom wall. She said her daughter came downstairs for help unloading the gun and again accidentally fired it, right in front of her, as Seth Bishop was walking through the kitchen. A bullet struck him in the chest.

The Bishops have not commented since their daughter was arrested in Alabama.

Their lawyer, Bryan Stevens, did not return a call Monday seeking comment on the inquest. Stevens said earlier that Judith Bishop told the truth about the shooting and will tell the same story during the inquest.

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

“It was an accident, no question about it,” he said.

Robert George, a Boston defense attorney who has been involved in other inquests, said both the judge and prosecutor may question witnesses.

Bishop has the right to attend but will not be there because she is being held without bail in Alabama in the Feb. 12 shootings.

“For all intents and purposes, it’s impossible for her to go,” said her Alabama defense attorney, Roy Miller. He said he is monitoring developments in Massachusetts through an attorney for Bishop’s parents.

Huntsville police spokesman Sgt. Mark Roberts said the department does not have anyone at the inquest.

“It would really have no bearing on our case,” he said.

The Massachusetts judge later will issue a report and recommendation, which Keating can then use to pursue an indictment or end the inquiry.

The judge is not expected to make findings on any flaws in the original investigation.

“An inquest is to look into the death and investigate the death of Seth Bishop and determine whether murder charges should be presented to a grand jury,” George said.

“It is not for the judge to assess blame as to how the investigation was conducted.”

Associated Press reporters Kendal Weaver in Montgomery, Ala., and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., contributed to this report.