Testimony ends in query of ‘86 killing by professor charged in recent campus shooting in Ala.

Inquest held in ‘86 killing by woman in Ala. case

QUINCY, Mass. — A prosecutor who has had sharp criticism for police who investigated the 1986 killing of a teenager by his sister was the last witness called over three days to testify at a judicial inquest into the shooting.

Authorities are taking another look at the case after the sister, who never was charged in the 1986 killing, was charged with gunning down six colleagues at an Alabama university in February.

John Kivlan, who was the top assistant prosecutor on the case, testified Thursday.

Quincy District Court Judge Mark Coven, who presided over the inquest, is expected to issue a written report and findings, which prosecutors could use to seek an indictment against the woman or to say that there is not enough evidence to prosecute her in her brother’s death. It was not immediately clear when Coven would file his report.

The death of 18-year-old Seth Bishop originally was ruled an accident. But the case has come under new scrutiny by Massachusetts prosecutors since Amy Bishop was charged in a Feb. 12 rampage at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, where she was a biology professor. Three of Bishop’s colleagues died.

Nineteen witnesses testified during the closed-door inquest, including Bishop’s parents.

Kivlan would not discuss his testimony, but outside the courthouse, he repeated criticisms he had made earlier of police in Braintree, where the Bishops lived, and state police assigned to his office.

He said police never told the district attorney’s office that after she shot her brother, Bishop tried to commandeer a getaway car at gunpoint and refused to drop her gun until police ordered her to do so repeatedly. Those events were described in Braintree police reports, but not in a report written by a state police detective assigned to the district attorney’s office.

Kivlan said he hopes the inquest will answer questions, including why “significant evidence wasn’t reported to our office and state police.”

Kivlan said the state police report given to prosecutors concluded that Amy Bishop had accidentally shot her brother and that no charges were warranted. He said that if he had known about Bishop’s actions after her brother’s shooting, “certainly that would have triggered a grand jury investigation.”

“Had it been reported to us, obviously we would have taken additional steps,” he said.

“There was no evidence provided to us to bring charges of any kind.”

Kivlan said he and U.S. Rep. William Delahunt — who was then the top prosecutor in Norfolk County — believe the inquest is a way to get at the truth.

“It’s important that the court seek the truth about what happened on the afternoon of Dec. 6, 1986,” said Kivlan, who now works as legal counsel to Delahunt.

Delahunt did not testify during the inquest.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating called for the inquest.

Keating’s office said Judge Coven is keeping the inquest open in case he decides to call or recall any additional witnesses.

Bishop’s mother, Judith, the only eyewitness to the shooting, told police in 1986 that her daughter accidentally shot her brother as she tried to unload their father’s shotgun. She testified twice during the inquest, but did not comment to reporters.

On Tuesday, Kenneth Brady, a retired Braintree police officer, told reporters that he drove Judith Bishop to the police station where Amy Bishop was taken after being arrested. Brady said Judith Bishop asked to see the police chief, John Polio. A short time later, officers were told not to book Bishop and to release her to her parents, Brady said.

Also testifying during the inquest were two men who told police they were threatened at gunpoint by Bishop after she shot her brother.

Tom Pettigrew and Jeff Doyle, who worked in a Braintree car dealership auto body shop, told police Bishop pointed the shotgun at them and demanded a getaway car. Pettigrew said he and Doyle fled, then saw Bishop trying car door handles in the parking lot. He said they saw Bishop being arrested by police a short time later.

New evidence was discovered following the Alabama killings.

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

Keating has said Bishop should have been charged with weapons violations for her actions after her brother’s killing.